Hear Me
by SKYE-07
Summary: Gabriella moves to LA with her abusive family. She meets Dom one day when on a beach and it ends up changing her life for ever. Can she fall in love and does she finally learn to trust again? .
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer- I don't own any of the original characters from the fast and the furious but i do 'own' all of the characters you don't recognise.**

**i started to write this story a while ago and yesterday i decided to post it on here and continue it.  
**

Chapter 1

They were drinking heavily again. Gabriella listened to her brothers and father and knew she shouldn't stay. She crept downstairs and out the front door.  
Gabriella had moved to L.A with her brother and father two weeks ago and things were starting here the same way they had ended in Las Vegas. Her father showed no intention of getting a job and her brothers didn't seem like they were going to do anything except get drunk all of the time.  
At 21 most girls her age would have left their families and started out on their own. Gabriella couldn't, if she moved away her father would hunt her down. He was so possessive of her. He terrified her and beat her whenever anything wrong.

Her brothers were just as bad, although they were both eighteen and still at school, they were almost clones of their father and treated her like dirt.  
Her family were so bad they didn't let her have any friends, she had to go straight home from school and she never had a boy friend. Not that she wanted one, she knew what men were like, they scared her and she wanted nothing to do with them.

She walked down to the beach and sat down at the edge watching the sea. This had turned out to be a regular occurrence since she had arrived. It was a serene place where she felt she could forget her surroundings. She liked to sit and forget about her life even if was only for an hour or so.  
The beach she had found was normally deserted except for the odd person jogging or walking their dogs.

She took out her notebook that she had remembered to take out with her and continued her latest design. She loved to draw patterns for car, for street racing cars like Skylines and such.  
For as far back as she could remember she had been fascinated by the many different colours and patterns that could be used. She had never seen any of these cars up close or been to any races but she still loved to draw.  
If her father found out about the drawings he'd probably kill her. He did not like her to take interest in anything that was not girly. So anything that was not cooking and cleaning was out of the question.

She sat their, perfectly content for the first time in her life, completely unaware that she was being watched.

Dominic Toretto wandered aimlessly along the beach. He had done this for as long as he could remember since he had moved here. Running two businesses, street racing and staying off the cop's radar was stressful, and this was his way to unwind.

For the last two weeks his fascination with the beach had been because of something entirely. A young woman had started to come to the beach and sit in exactly the same spot everyday. For the first two days he hadn't even realise she was there, e noticed her but didn't pay attention to her.

She always wore her dark hair pulled into a bun and wore very plain, nondescript clothes. Every time he saw her his fascination grew. She always seemed sad and lost, yet strangely at peace. He had never approached her, she looked like she would scare easily, he just watched her.  
A few times now he had watched her engrossed in something, drawing or writing he couldn't tell.

He never noticed him but it seemed like only a matter of time before she did. He looked straight at her and realised she was facing him, only she had her eyes closed. Then she opened them and looked right at him. Her eyes widened in fear.

She saw him watching her and knew right then that she hadn't been imagining it. Over the past few days she had seen this man on the beach. His presence unnerved her but not in the same way his family did.

He was a huge guy. Over 6ft tall and had the frame of a body builder. He looked quite scary and was looking right at her.

Before she could move away a noise to her left startled her. She turned to see what it was and saw her father drunkenly ambling towards her with a scowl on his face. She froze and waited. "Gabriella!" he yelled as he reached her. She flinched, "Why are you here? We are hungry. We can't cook for ourselves you know!" He grabbed her arms and pulled her to her feet. She knew it was pointless to argue so she just went with him. As he was pulling her away, she dropped her notebook onto the sand.

Dominic watched as the scene unfolded before him. He wanted to go and punch the guy's lights out for hurting the woman but saw it would probably make things worse for her.

As she was dragged away he saw her drop the notebook. He waited until they were gone, went over and picked it up. Opening it, he was surprised to at what he saw. Their were about 16 different designs on a selection of different cars and all of them were amazing. He turned to the last unfinished design and realised what she must have been working on. He closed the book and decided he would come back tomorrow and decided to see if he could return it.

Gabriella sobbed quietly as she remembered the events of the day. After her father had dragged her home he had immediately started to yell at her. He wanted her to make dinner so she did. She thought that was the end of it but she was mistaken.

He hadn't liked dinner so he had started to beat her. He was drunk so his anger was worse. He had punched the side of her head so hard she had fallen to the floor, then he started to kick her ribs. After a while he left her and she had managed to crawl upstairs to her bed.

He had left a large cut across her cheek and she was sure he had broken a couple of ribs. She cleaned up the cuts and decided that the cut would be easily covered with concealer. She crawled walked slowly to her bed and fell asleep with her clothes on.

**Ok there ya go i hope you liked it.**

**Ps i also need a title so if you have any suggestions let me know**


	2. Chapter 2

**Hey people here is the second chapter, thanks for reading the first one and thank you to the reviewers, you know who you are.**

**I still need a title though so if any one has any suggestions let me know.**

She awoke the next morning to the sound of her brothers leaving for school and her father leaving for the local bars. She was sitting, after painfully washing and dressing, at her desk. She was looking for her notebook.

It was then that she remembered dropping it at the beach. She went into the bathroom and applied makeup on her face to cover up the cut and bruising and then painfully made her way downstairs and out the front door. She walked slowly to the beach.

She reached the spot where she was sitting the day before and started to frantically looking around for her book.'_it has to be here'_ she thought. '_all my designs were in it'. _As she was looking, she was aware of a large shadow falling over her. For a moment she thought it was her father coming back and her heart momentarily stopped but then she realized the shadow was too big.

She turned around and saw the man that was watching her yesterday. She gasped thinking that he wanted to hurt her but noticed the smallest glint of friendliness in his eyes. She still took a step back.

The move obviously surprised him so he put his hand out to stop her running away. She visibly flinched when he did that so he took a step back too.

"I didn't mean to scare you, but you dropped this yesterday and I thought you might want it back", he said in a low rumbling voice. She looked at his out stretched hand and saw her notebook; she hesitated and then took it from him. "I- thank you" she said quietly. She looked down at her notebook and opened it. She saw that no pictures were missing and closed it again.

She looked up and saw that he was still standing their watching her. As she looked at him she took in his image. He was well built and tall like she remembered but although he looked tough he was still good looking.

She went to turn away from him but he pulled her back by her arm. She looked at him fearfully and pulled her arm away.

"Don't go yet", he said quietly "I promise I won't hurt you, but I looked at your pictures and I wanted to ask you about them", he said. He had let go of her arm and was watching for her response.

"Why did you look at them, and-and why do you want to ask me about them, I haven't done anything wrong" she said quickly. He looked at her in surprise not expecting a reply like that.

"No you didn't do anything wrong, I just think they a really good and I wondered why you drew them" he told her.

"I have always drawn them I don't know why, I just do." She said wearily. She was still slightly turned away from him, but now she turned back to talk to him properly.

"You think they are good" she asked him with a small smile.

"Of course I do, doesn't anyone else", he asked with surprise.

"No-one has ever seen them before I", she paused "so I didn't know if they were good or not." He smiled at her and was glad that she seemed to be relaxing. It seemed to him that she was unused to being near people let alone talking to them.

"My name's Dominic," he said to her "you can call me Dom. So do you like cars um.."

"Oh my name's Gabriella", she said after a moments hesitation "I guess I like cars, but it depends what type you mean"

Dom sat on the sand and gestured for her to sit downstairs behind him. Dom saw that he was about to but as she moved she winced in pain. She sat down awkwardly, looked at him and saw him watching her.

"you ok?" he asked her in a concerned voice.

"yeah I'm fine thank you". She said slightly looking away. Dominic saw this and realized she was lying, "So you're not in pain?" he asked quizzically. She shook her head.

He reached out quickly and pushed her side, she yelled out in pain and looked at him in outrage.

"You are a complete stranger, and you…What did you do that for it hurt", she yelled her fear momentarily forgotten as she grasped her side. She sat still trying not to cry as pain shot through her body.

Dom was shocked that he hurt her so much and wished that he hadn't done what he did. He watched her and then apologized. "I'm sorry I didn't know it would hurt you that much" he said, "what happened?"

"I, um I fell down the stairs" she said. She knew it was obvious that she was lying but she couldn't just tell him the truth even though she felt unusually comfortable sitting with him.

"Yeah right", he said sarcastically, "you know no-one can help you if you don't tell anyone".

Gabriella just looked at him bemusedly. "I am a very shy person", she muttered under her breath, "I don't like strangers especially men and I'm not supposed to speak to anyone, yet here we are, it feels so weird".

"So you didn't fall down the stairs then?" he said knowingly.

She looked at him with a look of sadness on her face which went away as quickly as it came. "Yes I did fall down the stairs actually, why would I lie?" she said to him a little too quickly.

He scowled slightly as she said this but decided to let it go. If the woman wasn't going to tell him he wasn't going to force her to. "Ok I believe you" he said unconvincingly. He knew she was being abused in some way but he also knew that if she wasn't going to tell anyone, their was nothing he could do about it.

"Well, uh thanks for returning this to me," she gestured towards the book, "I have to go now though", She stood to walk away but Dom stopped her as she was about to go,

"Gabriella", he said uncertainly "If there is anything you need you can call me on this number or find me at this address", he said as he wrote in her notebook. He knew she would probably need help and it made him feel better to know she could contact him.

She looked at him for a second before nodding and walking away.

**Well let me know what you think, i hope that their isn't too many spelling mistakes i really tried to make it ok.  
**


	3. Chapter 3

**Here it is, chapter 3. Thanks to everyone that has reviewed and thanks for the title suggestions i'm getting, maybe one of these days i will officially name this story anyway thanks again and enjoy.  
SKYE-07 xxx**

Dom was sitting in the store at the counter waiting for the rest of the team to get in from the garage. He had not been able to focus on anything all morning and so had left them earlier in the day to see Mia in the store. She had been glad to have the company but felt that Dom was not acting like himself.

When she had asked him about it he had said it was nothing was wrong, just that he had a headache. She was watching him intently and was knocked out of her reverie when the sound of powerful engines came roaring down the road. She looked out the window just as four cars came to a stop outside. The team had arrived for lunch.

Letty, Vince, Leon and Jesse ambled in from the bright sunlight into the dimmer interior of the store and parked them selves at various places throughout.

Letty wandered into the small office in the back and laid down on the couch with her eyes closed to see if she could get rid of the pounding headache she was getting and Mia went out back to join her. Leon and Jesse started to mess around with some of the stock by the farthest wall and Vince took a seat next to Dom.

Vince looked at his friend and could sense that something was wrong with him. He knew that he was not the most sensitive guy in the world but he liked to think that he knew when his best friend was keeping something from him. "Yo, Dom what's eating you man?" he said less tactfully than he intended. "You look like you're in mourning".

Dom turned to him and sighed. It had been two days since he spoke to Gabriella on the beach but he couldn't stop worrying about her. He had also kept his meeting with her a secret from the team. Not purposely it just hadn't come up in conversation, not that he had expected it to. He decided that he needed to tell someone and thought, why not Vince? The guy was his best friend after all.

"I uh, I met a girl the other day." He said carefully "I met her on the beach" he told him quietly so the other guy's couldn't over hear.

Vince looked at him closely then replied to him as carefully as he could without upsetting him "It is not cool to be cheating on Letty man," he said "She doesn't deserve that". Vince watched as Dom looked at him disbelievingly.

"I don't like her like that Vince, She's good looking when you get up close to her but I don't like her like that, I suppose I just want to protect her", he confided awkwardly.

Vince smirked at this and replied, "You don't like her like that but you think she is attractive, what's wrong with her? If you don't want her i'll take her off your hands for you", he said jokingly but stopped laughing quickly when he saw Dom's face.

"You don't know what you're talking about Vince" he said quite angrily.

"well why don't you tell me instead of getting all angry with me?"

Dom glared at Vince before proceeding to tell him the whole story about the suspected abuse, and about the fact that she is scared of everything and everyone. He even told him about the car designs but felt that that was the least important part.

When he had finished Vince's face seemed almost to mirror his own expression. Vince had always hated it when men beat up women, he always respected women and generally no matter how angry he got he would never hit them unless he really had to. His mother had taught him that. She had always made him believe that men and women were equal, and in his opinion this was true.

"Oh, man really?" he said with a sigh, "and she didn't admit it to you?"

"No, she didn't, why would she, she doesn't really know me after all, she only talked to me because I was asking her about her drawings and even then she was all shy and kind of weird" he said worriedly turning to Vince.

"Well, you gave her your number right, so if she really gets into trouble she'll probably call, she doesn't know anyone else so you are the only contact she has" he said reassuringly, "you did all you could man, don't worry about it, a'ight?" he said sympathetically.

Dom slowly nodded and got up to go out to the back room before he did he turned back to Vince "If she needs help, will you help me help her?" he asked.

Vince nodded straight away without having to think about what he was being asked, he was only glad to help his friend out as well as this new girl he had heard about. Dom went out into the office just as Mia came out telling him to be quiet because Letty had gone to sleep.

He looked in silently and smiled, his girl looked so peaceful, like an angel when she was asleep. He went in and sat down on the chair opposite and dosed off into sleep. He felt a lot better after he had talked to Vince.

**Well their ya go folks... i hope you like it, i know it's a bit short but it seemed to fit.**


	4. Chapter 4

**Hey peeps, thanks for your generous reviews… you know who you are.  
**

**This chapter was written so I could have Gabriella meet Dom again**.

Gabriella sat in the front room of her house silently, feeling like she had been stamped on by a horse; her head throbbed with every movement she made. She was listening to her brother's fight in the kitchen. They were obviously arguing over some girl or other but personally she couldn't see what any girl would see in either of them.

Her wounds had started to heel quite well, especially the ones on her face and she could get away with just wearing sunglasses to cover the bruising. Her ribs still hurt her when she moved too suddenly but it was obvious she hadn't broken them because the pain was getting better, not worse.

Since she had spoken to Dom on the beach she had managed to stay out of her father's way for most of the time and as her brothers were normally at school she hadn't spent much time with them either.

She had woken up that morning in quite a placid mood which had been darkened quickly when she had seen the expression on her father's face. It told her instantly that she had done something wrong. She winced at the expression but proceeded into the kitchen and started to make some breakfast. It was then that she realised she had forgotten to go grocery shopping yesterday.

Worriedly she turned back around to see that her father had risen from where he was previously sitting at the table. He had started to tell her quite calmly that she was stupid and couldn't do anything right. When he had asked her why she didn't go shopping she didn't answer him straight away which sent him into a blinding rage.

He yelled at her using all sorts of obscenities and then lashed out at her. She had been anticipating it but the first blow to her head had still stunned her so much she didn't even cry out. He hit her three more times, busting her lip before storming out of the door.

She just stood their completely frozen in shock for what seemed like ever and then calmly went and cleaned herself up.

She was exhausted and at the end of her tether. She couldn't cope with her family anymore and knew that it was just a matter of time before she finally snapped.

She rose from the seat where she was sitting and went in the kitchen to get her jacket. She expected her brothers to say something to her, something demeaning but they didn't which surprised her.

As she walked to the back door one of them said "are you going shopping?". She turned around and nodded her head slowly, not sure where this was going. "Ok, cool but you better be back to cook later on sis" he said warningly, "and go to that Torreto's place, they sell most stuff there and it's not that far" she nodded again and left, glad to be out of the house.

She arrived at the store about half an hour later, wishing that she owned a car. She knew she would have to carry what she bought home and decided she must have been out of her mind to listen to her brother. Not far? Not far if you have a car which she didn't.

She looked at the shop and tried to decide if it looked good or not. There did not seem to be many people around, even though it was the middle of the day, but the place seemed pleasant enough.

As she went inside she looked around and realised that it was some sort of café as well as a convenience store. She thought for a moment that the store was completely empty but then saw the young woman behind the counter. She smiled at her and the woman smiled back and then she looked around for the things she needed.

She took the things to the counter and the woman looked at her strangely for a moment before running the items through the register. "Hey, are you new around here I haven't seen you before" the girl said.

"Oh yes I am I moved here about two and a half weeks ago with my family, this is the first time I have been over this side of town though" she said smiling. It had been a while since she had had a proper conversation with someone and this girl seemed friendly to her.

"Well, welcome to LA", the woman said smiling "I'm Mia", she said sticking out her hand. Gabriella shook it.

"Hey Mia, I'm Gabriella and you have no idea how long it is since I have spoken to another person outside my family and some random guy from the beach", she said laughing happily.

Mia smiled at this. Not one of those polite smiles but a genuinely friendly smile. "Well then you're lucky Gabriella, I love talking to people and as I live with a load of guys and one girl I sometimes forget what it's like to have a normal conversation", she said happily.

Gabriella frowned a little at the comment Mia had made about guys but didn't dwell on it. She knew she was the strange one for being scared of men so it wasn't surprising that this girl lived with men and didn't think anything of it. "Oh me too, it's just my father, my brothers and me so I don't get much female company either" she said, covering up her momentary lapse in thought.

Mia and Gabriella started to get caught up in conversation so they didn't notice when Dom walked in the store via the back door. "Hey Mia, did we get a delivery this morning?" he said loudly from behind Gabriella.

Before Mia had chance to answer Gabriella jumped up so quickly she almost fell off her stool. "Whoa, Gabriella are you okay?" Mia said concernedly.

"Yeah I'm fine, he startled me is all", she said turning around to look at the man that had spoken.

What she saw were a pair of eyes that mirrored the same expression as her own. Surprise. She was looking at the rather surprised face of Dom.

"Gabriella? What are you doing here?" he said confusedly, looking at her as if she had just materialised in front of him.

"Um shopping", she said. "I'm um shopping in this…shop", she said running out of words, as she looked around her trying to think of something to say.

She turned back around as once again met by a confused expression only this time it was Mia's.

"How do you know each other? You said you hadn't spoken to anyone yet" she said bewildered, looking from her brother to Gabriella and back again.

"No I spoke to that random guy on the beach", she said quietly so Dom couldn't hear her.

Mia didn't catch onto this and said rather loudly "So my brother is the random beach guy?" causing Gabriella to turn bright red. Gabriella muttered something incomprehensible, her shyness returning to her with lightening speed.

She looked back at Dom and was about to say something when he cut her off, "What happened to your lip?" he said quickly. She looked at him quizzically and then remembered the confrontation with her father that morning.

"Oh, um nothing" she told him unconvincingly. He looked at her so intently that she practically shrivelled under his gaze.

"Are you lying again?" he asked sternly as if he was telling off a child. For some reason Gabriella couldn't take the pressure and she promptly burst into tears, the events of her previous week taking their toll.

Dom didn't know what to do and looked at Mia helplessly. She made her way round the counter and put her hands on Gabriella's shoulders guiding her to a stool.

"Do you want to talk about it?" she asked nicely. Gabriella shook her head and then nodded it, in confusion.

"I- I, just can't take it any more", she sniffed.

**A/N well their ya go, I know it is a cliff hanger but I needed to think about where the next chapter is going to go, let me know what you think.**


	5. Chapter 5

**Hey everyone.  
**

**disclaimer- i don't own the fast and the furious or it's characters.**

**thanks for the reviews.**

** chapter 5 is here. hope you enjoy**

Gabriella cried for what seemed like hours but in reality was only minutes, and every time she thought she was composed enough to explain everything she started to cry again. She could tell that Dom and Mia were becoming increasingly worried as each tear cascaded down her face because they kept exchanging perturbed looks.

She felt like a fool. She had burst into tears in front of two virtual strangers and she knew that they were both waiting for an explanation, but she really didn't want to tell them the truth. Well in a way she did, she had been coping with it all alone for most of her life and needed to tell someone yet she felt that if she told them they would be disgusted or think of her as weak. She did not want their pity or their help, yet at the same time she felt that she needed all the help she could get.

Eventually she calmed down enough to speak, but she held her tongue not wanting to be the one to start the inevitably awkward conversation.

It was Mia that broke the silence "Gabriella", she paused trying to be a gentle as possible, "is someone hurting you?" she asked.

Mia and Dom waited expectantly for an answer. She so desperately wanted to lie but knew that Dom already knew the truth. She knew she needed friends and she was also sure that if she didn't start telling the truth Dom would eventually lose patience with her and stop caring about what happened to her. She had only just met Mia but she felt that a strong friendship could be formed between them and that she would have to tell the truth for them to trust her.

Slowly she nodded her head and murmured "yes, someone is… hurting me" she answered vaguely, not daring to look either one of them in the eye. She waited a minute before looking up into the eyes of Mia. She looked like she was going to cry. This woman that she had known for little over three hours was ready to cry over her. She glanced sideways at Dom and saw that his eyes were full of pity and laced with anger. She felt like she was going to die of embarrassment. She really didn't want them to get involved, and most of all she didn't want their pity.

Dom looked at Gabriella and slowly felt rage build up inside him, but he tried not to let it show in his expression. He didn't want to upset her even more than she was already.

"Gabriella, who is it that is hurting you?" he asked quietly.

He waited silently for her answer and knew immediately that she was trying to think of a lie to tell him. She obviously failed because all she said was "I can't tell you". He knew that she wasn't going to relent.

Mia sighed and Dom looked at her, expecting her to say something. "Why can't you tell us?" she asked, "we can help you if you tell us".

"I don't think you can help me, and besides I really don't want you to get involved. It will make more trouble for me and trouble for you two as well," she sighed. Dom shook his head and felt like he was trying to talk sense into a brick wall.

"You should just tell us, I swear we will be able to help you… you can" he paused thinking about what he was going to say "you can stay with us." He said nodding his head slightly, trying to convince himself as well as her.

Before Gabriella could answer, Mia jumped in "Oh my God Dom, that is a great idea, it will be so cool having someone else in the house I can talk to." She said eagerly.

Gabriella was shaking her head, "no I can't come and live with you, it's not fair on you and I can't just leave my home and I don't know all your friends that live there and honestly you will get fed up with me eventually and if they find me they will cause you so much trouble," she said hurriedly.

Dom shook his head "okay Gabriella listen if you are worried about putting us out don't be, you can earn your keep with those drawings you make. You can just leave your home because it is obvious that you don't like it there. My friends will like having you around and don't worry they don't bite… well Vince might but don't take it personally and finally the people that you say will find you, may find you but we won't let them hurt you. You are old enough to make your own decisions and they can't stop you." He said, simultaneously answering all her worries.

Gabriella listened to what he said and found it hard to say no. He made it sound so easy and she really needed to get away. She knew she couldn't refuse his offer; it was probably the best one she would ever get. Slowly she nodded.

Mia shrieked she was so excited and Dom just sighed in relief.

"So when do you want me to move in then?" Gabriella asked slowly, hardly daring to believe this was real.

"Well whenever you want really, I will run it by the team first so they know you are coming and then I will let you know. Do you have a cell, Mia or I could call you to let you know." He said after some thought. Gabriella nodded at him and gave her cell phone number to Mia.

"Thank you so much Dom, you have no idea how grateful I am, to both of you" Gabriella said feeling happier already. "I should be getting back my family will be wondering wear I am" she said as the started to walk to the door.

"Do you need a ride?" Dom asked. She shook her head and advanced out the door. After she left Dom turned to Mia, "you don't think the team will mind do you" he asked cautiously.

Mia just smiled and shook her head. Laughing slightly at her brother and his spur of the moment screw the consequences ideas.

**reviews please xxx**


	6. authers note

Authers note.

Okay don't worry I am continuing this story (I really like it so I will finish it).

I just think it is going to take a bit longer than I anticipated because yesterday was my last proper day in high school (I'm in England so we finish high school when we are 16). And now I have like 14 exams to study for and take in the next month or so, therefore I don't have that much time to do these chapters I will finish it though because I have about 13 weeks off until I start college in September.

So bare with me and I will continue with this story.


	7. Chapter 6

**Okay here we have chapter 6. It's finally done and i will be writing the next chapter ASAP let me know what you think.**

**SKYE-07 **

**ps.. the usual disclaimers ensue**

After a gruelling long walk home Gabriella wished she had taken up Dom's offer of a lift. Her feet hurt and her hands hurt but by the time she reached her door she felt that she was practically floating with happiness for the first time in her life. Even though underneath she was still very apprehensive and expecting something to go wrong.

She felt like a whole weight had been lifted off her shoulders. She no longer had to endure her father or her brothers. She had friends and she would make more friends. She would be safe and free from her father's demanding rules and regulations.

She put the groceries away and as she finished she heard her brothers and her father get home. They were talking excitedly about something or other and they stopped abruptly as they saw her standing in the room.

"You were out ages, where were you", one of her brothers said suspiciously. Gabriella looked at him and resisted the urge to roll her eyes.

"You sent me Toretto's, it's like a mile away and I don't have a car" she bit out.

He chuckled dumbly "Oh yeah my bad" he said. Gabriella rolled her eyes at him eliciting a growl out of her father

There was an aggravated silence before her father finally spoke. "We're going away" he said bluntly. Gabriella looked at him and suddenly felt cold.

"Who's going away" she asked cautiously.

"Your brothers and I" he told her. Gabriella let out a breath that she had not realised that she had been holding. For a moment she had been scared that they were all going and that she would miss her chance to leave.

"Why are you going away?" she asked curiously. Her father looked at her for a moment before answering her almost too carefully.

"We are going to see a friend" he finally said. She looked at him and then at her brothers who were shuffling around rather suspiciously. She didn't believe him and for some reason felt the uncharacteristic urge to push her luck.

"So who is it that you are going to see?" she asked quizzically. Her father looked at her a hint of anger in his eyes. "It's none of your business Gabriella", he said forcefully. Gabriella couldn't help herself she really felt that she needed to know but at the same time knew that she shouldn't ask but couldn't help herself. She had to make sure they were going to be away for a while. "God's sake Gabriella, give at a rest. We will be four days and you need to stay here and mind your own business!" he yelled at her. She slowly nodded her head and turned out of the room and went to her bedroom.

_This is exactly what I need_ Gabriella thought as she sat in her room that evening. _If Dom calls tomorrow then I can leave here while they are away. It's perfect, I can't believe my luck._

She decided to start packing that night so that she knew exactly what she had and what she needed to find. She went to her closet and looked at the small amount of clothes it had in it. There wasn't much. She owned three ankle length skirts that were straight cut and made of a heavy dark material. She had two pairs of dark pants and six nondescript non fitting shirts, all of them plain cream and white.

She looked at them and sighed. How was she going to fit in with Mia and Dom and there friends if she wore clothes that fit better in the nineteenth century than in the twenty first. She decided she needed new clothes. She would wear the most normal clothes she had tomorrow. Then when she got to the house she would ask Mia if she would go shopping with her so she could buy some new clothes and with advice from her she would be able to get ones that actually looked normal.

Gabriella sat down at her desk and began to write the note she would leave for her father. She sat for at least 15 minutes trying to think about what to say before she decided that she would make it short and to the point.

_**Father,**_

_**I have gone and I'm not coming back.**_

_**I can't cope with you anymore**_

_**Goodbye and don't try to find me I won't come home  
Gabriella x**_

The team were in the back yard and were starting to eat when Dom finally began to try to tell them about Gabriella.

He looked over at Jesse who had just finished a prayer, "Thanks Jesse that was…great, I um I have something to tell you all" he said as he looked at them all and waited for their attention.

"Okay, what?" Letty said cautiously. Something in Dom's tone had told her that he I done something he shouldn't have.

Dom cleared his throat, "we have someone new coming to stay with us and I thought I'd run it by you all first so that you'd be expecting it." He told them. For a second there was a stunned silence: everyone new that Dom didn't trust new people very easily so letting someone new into the house was strange for him.

"Are you being serious, who is it?" Vince asked curiously.

"She's called-" Dom began but was cut off by an indignant Letty "She… Jesus Dom you're having a woman come stay with us, you had better not be sleeping with her" she said angrily, Mia cut in quickly to avoid a full scale argument "He isn't Letty, I know her too" she said quickly.

Letty paused, "sorry" she muttered to Dom under her breath. Dom frowned at her "I would never do that to you I swear" he told her quietly. Letty sighed "I know, sorry".

Vince interrupted them as he was not in the mood for one of their stupid arguments, "so what she called?" he asked Dom. Dom raised his eyebrow at him and waited for Vince to come to an understanding. After a couple of seconds he did and he nodded his head at Dom. He knew that it was Gabriella coming to stay with them and he couldn't decide if that was a good or bad thing.

"Gabriella. She is called Gabriella and she will move in tomorrow, does anyone have a problem with this?" he told the team they had better not have a problem with it by the tone of his voice. Slowly everyone shook their heads to show him that they had no problem with it. They didn't have a problem with it, they were just surprised and Letty was still weary.

"One more thing", Dom continued "You have got to be more normal around her than you are normally. She is really shy and doesn't like strangers and you lot" he pointed at them, "are strangers, guys I don't want you to make any comments about her or too her, she's not that type of girl and you know what type of comment I mean" he finished as he pointed at Leon who was about to protest.

"Well, what room is she going to stay in, we have Letty's old room but that's quite small and filled with her junk but we have that spare room downstairs in the basement, the one next to Vince's, we can clean that out and have it ready for her by tomorrow", Mia said thoughtfully. Dom nodded but Vince didn't look too pleased.

"Yeah, the downstairs room is probably best, it's bigger and more private", Dom agreed. Vince scowled, "that's not fair, I like having the basement to my self it's good for me and where will I move all the boxing equipment to?" he almost pouted.

"Vince don't be a baby", Mia said "There are three rooms downstairs, move your boxing equipment into the smaller one, it's not like you need all that space" she told him.

Vince just glared at her. _Great, just what I need, some chick taking up my space. I don't like her already. I didn't mind until then but now…GRRRR _he thought bitterly _I am not making anymore sacrifices for her, I'm not changing my behaviour just for her._ Vince knew he was being a baby as Mia had put it but he felt put out.

**Well I know It was only a filler chapter but I hope you liked it.**


	8. Chapter 7

**A/N Well here it is at last the next chapter. I hope you like and thank you to every one who has reviewed so far I really appreciate it.**

**I had to split this into different perspectives to make this easier for me to write. I hope it reads well enough.**

**Any writing in italics is a thought.**

**Enjoy.**

Chapter 7

Gabriella was awoken the next morning by the sound of her cell phone ringing shrilly in her ear. Startled momentarily she glanced around her room before she realised what the noise was.  
Cautiously she answered it, wondering who could be calling her at this early hour. "Hello?" she said quietly.

"Hi, Gabriella? It's me Dom" he said into the phone.

"Oh, Dom hi, I wasn't expecting you to call so early", she told him as she yawned slightly.

"Yeah, sorry about the time, I have to go to work soon so I thought it would be better if I called you now." He said apologetically, "Listen, will you be ready to move out today?"

"Today? Really? Yes I can, my family are going away at about midday today so I can leave any time after that" she told him as she thought about how lucky she was that they were in fact leaving her to her own devices.

"After twelve? I can get Mia to come around to your and pick you up if you want. The rest of us are working so it will give you time to settle in before you have to meet anyone" he told her.

"Wow, yeah Dom that would be great" she said happily.

"Um Gabriella", he said after a slight pause.

"Yes?" she asked

"I need your address" he told her.

Gabriella laughed at her own moment of stupidity, she had been about to hang up on him without telling him her address.

"Oh right sorry its 1554 Colorado Way, do you know where that is?" she asked him.

"Yes Gabriella" he chuckled "I know it, I will pass the directions on to Mia, she will get you at 1.30 is that okay?" he asked

"Yeah, thanks again Dom you don't know how much this means to me." She said gratefully.

"No problem Gabriella, see you later"

"Yes see you later" she replied before hanging up the phone.

After she hung up she felt like laughing with joy. She felt that for once in her life things were finally going right for her. She went to the bathroom and showered and dressed in her best clothes.

As she stood in front of the floor length mirror in her room she studied her reflection carefully. She stood at about 5'5 and had a toned, rather athletic body that couldn't be made out through the loose clothing she was wearing. This is one reason why she wore such clothes; they covered her up and stopped any unwanted attention being drawn to her. The clothes she wore today consisted of plain dark cotton pants and a cream button up shirt.

When her dark hair was down it hung to the middle of her back in lose curls. She dried it and pulled it up into a bun. The eyes staring back at her were dark green and they stood out against her pale skin.

If anyone noticed her they would definitely say she was pretty, some would even call her beautiful but Gabriella just saw a small plain girl looking back at her and no one had been around to tell her otherwise.

She made sure she had all of her clothing and belongings packed and put her bag under her bed in case any of her family decided to go into her room. She did not want them to find her packed bag. She went into the kitchen and made herself breakfast before beginning to cook a full breakfast for her father and brothers. By this time it was 9.30 and she could hear someone moving around upstairs.

By the time she had finished cooking all three of the men were sitting around the table quietly describing their journey plan for the day. She served their breakfast in silence and then began to clean up the cooking utensils.

"Gabriella?" her father said curtly. She turned around to face him.

"Yes father?" she asked obediently

"We will be leaving here at exactly 12.00 and will be returning four days from now at exactly the same time. I expect this house to be spotless when we return and if it isn't the consequences will be dire. Now do as you are told and bring our bags down from upstairs and put them by the front door and then you can start on your chores" he told her all at once in a demanding tone. Gabriella nodded her head and walked out of the room. She was relieved to leave because she was having a hard time keeping a smile off her face.

She grabbed the bags from upstairs and dragged them downstairs, leaving them where her father had instructed. She grabbed a duster from the cupboard in the hallway and began to dust the front room.

By the time she finished cleaning the hours had passed and it was coming up to 12.00. She heard her father and brothers getting ready to leave and felt it were best that she went to see them off.

She stood in the hall next to the open front door and watched as they left the house and got into the truck. On his way out her father said to her "remember what I said Gabriella", and for a moment decided it might not be a good idea to leave but then the idea of being free of them came into her head and she decided to continue with her plan.

She finished her last bit of cleaning and then went to get her bag from under her bed. She also got the note she had written and left it on the kitchen counter. After making sure everything was in order she sat in the front room and nervously waited for Mia to show up.

Finally the door bell rang and it had been so silent up until then that Gabriella jumped out of her skin. She calmed herself and opened the door and found herself looking into the smiling face of Mia Toretto.

"Hey, Gabriella, are you ready to go" she asked with a smile.

"Yes, I am definitely ready, let me go and get my bag." She said as she turned back into the hall to pick it up. She walked out of the front door, locked it and posted the key back through the letter box. When she did this Mia gave her an odd look, "I don't plan on returning here so I don't need the key" she said by way of explanation. Mia just laughed and nodded as they walked back to her car.

Mia climbed into the front seat of her car as Gabriella was putting her bag in the back. Whilst she was doing this the sound of an engine stopping just up the road made her look up.

To her horror she realised who it was. It was her dad in the truck. He must have forgotten something. She began to back away towards the front of the car just as he began to yell. "Gabriella, what the hell do you think you are doing. Get here right now. Don't you dare get in that car!" he shouted as she opened the car door, "Gabriella, do not make me come and get you!", he cried as she scrambled into the passenger seat next to Mia.

"Oh my god Mia, it's my dad, you have to go now, hurry." She practically shouted. Mia wasted not time and put her foot on the gas. Gabriella was still looking out the back window and watched as her father disappeared out of her line of vision.

Mia drove for 10 minutes in silence and then abruptly pulled over in to a lay by near the road. She turned to look at Gabriella and began to speak "What the hell was that about?" she asked. Gabriella shrugged her shoulders,

"My dad came back", she said simply,

"Dom told me that they were going to be away" she said confusedly,

"Well, they were supposed to be, he must have forgotten something… I'm not sure if I have ever seen him that angry and that is saying something", Gabriella admitted.

"Wow, he is quite scary isn't he, I mean he isn't very big but he sure can yell" Mia replied,

"He might not be big, but he is stronger than he looks" Gabriella said seriously.

There was a long pause before Mia replied "Gabriella, is it him that is hurting you?" she asked quietly. Gabriella sighed before nodding. "Don't tell anyone Mia, please don't tell" she pleaded.

"Why? Why shouldn't I tell?" Mia asked in an exasperated tone.

"Because it will just cause more trouble for everyone and I really don't want any more" Gabriella replied in a tired voice.

Mia thought about what she had said before she replied "Fine, I won't tell but I think Dom already knows you know?" she asked in a semi rhetorical way.

"Yeah I already guessed that" Gabriella replied as Mia began to drive again.

She was beginning to become uncomfortable with the conversation and so quickly albeit not smoothly changed the subject.

"So, do you have the day off today?" Gabriella asked Mia curiously,

"Yeah I do so I can help you settle in" she replied with a smile. There was a small amount of silence before either of them spoke again.

"Mia, I was wondering, could you do me a favour", Gabriella asked, Mia laughed,

"Depends what the favour is" she replied with a chuckle.

"Well you might have noticed that the clothes I wear are nothing like what you wear; they are more what a 50 year old librarian would wear than a 21 year old. I just don't think I will fit in with you guys if I keep wearing these clothes so I was wondering if you would go shopping with me so I can buy something different, you see I have no idea what type of things I should buy so I will need your help", she said quickly as she tried to hide her embarrassment.

Mia looked at her quickly before bursting into a grin "Girl, I love to shop you have come to the right person, we can go today if you want, we can drop your stuff at the house and then go to the mall" Mia said excitedly.

Gabriella sighed with relief as she realised that she didn't need to be so nervous when she asked Mia for a favour like that.

They finally arrived at the house and were chattering like little girls as they pulled up at the drive. They climbed out of the car and Gabriella collected her bag before turning to look up at the house. The size of it amazed her.

"Wow Mia, is that the house, it's huge" she said in awe. Mia smiled and nodded before proceeding up to the front door with Gabriella following slowly behind her.

**Mias perspective**

Mia went inside and noticed Vince sitting in one of the chairs watching the television. She felt Gabriella stop abruptly behind her. "V, what are you doing here?" she asked in an accusatory tone.

She watched him as he turned around to look at her. "Well ya see, I got into a fight with one of the customers because he said that I didn't do a good enough job on his exhaust. Now Mia you know I don't like it when people criticise my work so I just hit him and then we were fighting. Dom broke it up 'said I needed to go home and cool off, I think he's pissed at me" he said wryly.

Mia just raised her eyebrow at him and watched as he looked passed her and focused on Gabriella.

She could feel the woman was feeling uncomfortable as she was shuffling around a bit behind her. "Gabriella, that is Vince", she told her. Mia watched as Gabriella watched Vince watch her.

**Vinces Perspective**

Vince wanted to laugh as he saw the small woman standing behind Mia. He didn't think he had seen anything so funny in his life. Here was a grown woman practically cowering behind a woman that wasn't really any bigger than her.

He held her gaze as he took her in, from her funny clothes to her timid expression it all amused him.

_It's going to be easier than I thought getting her to realise that I don't want her in my space. God she looks like a fucking librarian._

"Mia, why'd you bring a librarian home with you?" he asked nastily. He noticed Gabriella turn bright red and chuckled out loud.

"Shut it Vince", Mia replied angrily. He just continued to laugh, got up and went into the kitchen.

**Gabriella's perspective**

She felt her self burn with shame as Vince left the room and began to doubt weather living here would be any better than living at home. It already seemed she had met someone who didn't want her there. Not only that but the guy scary, way scarier than any of her family or Dom.

She glanced at Mia who gestured for her to follow her. She walked behind her down into the basement into a small but cosy, simply furnished room. "Listen. Gabriella, I'm sorry about Vince's behaviour I think he is just annoyed that you have moved into the basement, he is used to having it to himself and now he has to share it with you", Mia told her by way of explanation.

"Oh right", Gabriella said quietly, her voice lined with sadness,

"That and he is always and ass hole" Mia finished. Gabriella laughed at this.

"Well I don't like him anyway…and I told you I needed new clothes, he noticed straight away" Gabriella replied feeling a bit better.

Mia nodded "lets go shopping" she said and they went back upstairs.

"Vince we are going out" Mia yelled as they went out the door.

**A/N**

**Well there you go another chapter, I hope you liked it, please review it thanks.**


	9. Chapter 8

**Sorry it has taken so long to write this chapter. I have a new puppy and looking after her is a full time job at the moment. Anyway here it is.**

**Part way down I need to voice the thoughts of the team's reactions to Gabriella. I am going to write separate paragraphs for each person with a small title to split them. I know this isn't normal but it's the only way I can put their thoughts into words in a simple orderly way. I might change it later but for now it will have to do.**

Anyway I hope you like it.

"You aren't seriously going to buy that are you?" Mia said as she pointed to the long brown skirt in Gabriella's hand. Gabriella looked at it and then back at Mia,

"Yeah I am, what's wrong with it?" she asked incredulously.

"Well I don't mean to be harsh but it well, it's hideous and a lot like the clothes you already own", Mia said as kindly as she could.

"Well I guess that now you have persuaded me to buy all those other clothes that I have just bought I felt that I needed to get something that I am used to", Gabriella said a little indignantly.

"The whole point if this trip was so that you changed your style which means not buying skirts like that" Mia replied. Gabriella sighed in response and meekly replaced the skirt onto the wrack "You're right, I admit it you are right" Gabriella said with a smile, "so is there anything else that you think I should buy?". Mia paused for a second in thought. "Do you have any decent shoes?" she asked. Gabriella shook her head no. "Right then we need to buy shoes.

They walked out of the shop they were in and headed for a small boutique selling all different types of women's shoes. "Now you need some nice casual ones that will go with everything like these" Mia said as she pointed to a pair of black pumps on the nearest shelve to them. "They will go with pretty much any of the skirts that you bought and they are casual enough to wear during the day." Gabriella nodded and looked more closely at them and decided that they were quite nice. She searched around for her size and then looked at Mia "Do you mean I will need more than one pair of shoes?" she asked suspiciously. Mia nodded "as well as those you will need at least two or three other pairs" she said. Gabriella frowned, "Will I actually need them like, as a necessity?" she asked curiously.

"No but if you want to be able to mix and match your outfits you will" Mia told her forcefully.

"Okay then what else do you suggest?" Gabriella said after a moment's hesitation.

"You need some boots, preferably knee high with high heels" she said in reply.

Gabriella shook her head, "That doesn't sound like my style" she disagreed.

Mia raised an eyebrow at her, "Don't make me go through this with you again", she exclaimed, "the whole point of this is to change your style, now boots with heels will go with your dresses". Gabriella smiled, "you mean those dresses that barely cover anything that you made me buy?" she asked.

"Stop being so dramatic, they weren't that revealing and they looked good on you" Mia exclaimed slightly exasperated.

"okay, okay, now what boots do you suggest?" Gabriella said finally caving in to what Mia was saying. Mia looked around and spotted a pair at the back of the shop.

"how about those?" she said pointing to the pair of black knee high leather boots with a zip up the inside of the legs and buckle all the way out on the outside. They had a three and a half inch heel. "they kick ass".

Gabriella dutifully tried on boots and shoes until Mia was satisfied that she had bought the right ones. After the finished they lugged all the bags back to Mia's car and drove home.

&&&&&&&&

Once they arrived at the house Gabriella began to feel nervous again, what if that Vince guy was there again. He made her feel uncomfortable, almost like she was back home again and he was waiting for her to do something wrong, just so he could yell at her.

Gabriella knew that she was being ridiculous and that she didn't even know him but it was the vibes he gave off.

It turned out that when they went inside no one was home so they went straight down into Gabriella's new room so they could put her things away.

"The team will probably be back in a bit so you will get to meet them all" Mia said as she was putting the new skirts on a hanger. Gabriella paused as she thought about meeting everyone. It made her nervous; after all she wasn't a people person. She wasn't completely socially retarded but she still couldn't speak to new people easily. She was still slightly confused as to why she confided in Dom and Mia.

"Mia?" she questioned "do you think I should change my clothes before I meet the team, I mean into something more normal?" Mia nodded her head yes. "I think you should because those clothes do nothing for you and these clothes you have just bought are great" she paused " I think I just heard the guy's pull up, I'll go upstairs and say hi and you can get changed then come up when you are ready, I'll just tell them you are unpacking." She concluded and then walked out of the room closing the door behind her.

Gabriella picked out a pair of faded low rise jeans with tears in and put them on and then put on a black and red sleeveless top . On her feet she pulled on the black converse high tops that Mia had made her buy. They had tiny sliver skulls decorating them. Mia had said that she herself wouldn't wear them but that they suited the clothes that Gabriella had bought.

She turned to look at her reflection in the mirror she had propped up against the wall. She looked quite good. All of the clothed hung to her in the right places. She looked at her face and decided that for once in her life she would wear her hair down as it complimented the outfit better. When she took it out of the bun it was in it hung in loose, dark waves down her back. She looked at her reflection and sighed, "Here goes nothing" she muttered and then walked out of the room and headed for the stairs.

&&&&&&&&&&&&

After Mia had gone upstairs the front door opened and the team literally came tumbling in one after another. Dom was first followed by Letty and Vince and then after them Jesse and Leon.

"So is she here?" Dom asked her instead of the usual hello. Mia nodded with a smirk. "Yes Dom she's here she's unpacking downstairs, she's already met Vince, she doesn't like him" Mia told Dom.

She watched as Dom turned to Vince and raised a quizzical eyebrow at him. Mia knew that Dom knew about Vince being resentful of Gabriella but he hadn't expected Vince to be so up front about it. Vince shrugged his shoulders at Dom and walked away.

Mia smirked at his immaturity and turned her attention back to Dom and the rest of the team "she should be coming upstairs in a second so you won't have to wait long", she said. They all nodded their head in acknowledgment.

&&&&&&&&&&

The team had all settled themselves in various places in the front room and were talking between themselves when the door to the basement rooms opened. Gabriella cautiously walked through the door and she quietly closed it behind her. As she had done this so quietly no one noticed her standing there, silently surveying them.

She immediately recognised Dom and Mia and also saw Vince sitting in the corner of the room, tuning what looked like a base guitar. As she looked around the room she saw three other people. Sitting in front of the television she saw two other men, a young fair haired man that looked to be younger than everyone else and a darker haired man sitting next to him. Both of them were too engrossed in the television to notice anything around them. The last person she saw was the young woman sitting on Dom's knee. She assumed that this was his girlfriend and wondered if she lived their too.

As she was looking around she caught Mia's eye who had finally noticed her and smiled at her. "Gabriella, hey", Mia said to her purposely loud enough to let other people know she was there. Everyone turned to look at her and she felt her cheeks burn red in embarrassment. She walked over to stand next to Mia who was perched on the sofa next to the two guys she had spotted earlier. "Let me introduce you to everyone", she said "This is Jesse" she pointed to the fairer haired man next to her, he looked at her and smiled slightly, "next to him is Leon", who looked her up and down then smiled in a way that made Gabriella slightly self conscious. "You already know Dom and Vince and the girl sitting with Dom is Letty", Gabriella looked at her and smiled, Letty looked taken aback and gave her an awkward nod.

Vince's thoughts

_I can't believe that is the same woman as earlier. She is going to be a whole lot harder to be mean to. She looks…good. WAIT!!! Did I just think that she looks good. V!! snap out of it man you are supposed to hate her remember she stole your room!!!_

Letty's thoughts

_Hmmm, the Chica is a bit too good looking for my taste. I don't want her making moves on my man. She can keep her hands off. Well maybe I shouldn't jump to that conclusion straight away but I am going to keep my eyes on her. _

Leon's thoughts

_Oh wow she is… fine, I probably won't make any moves on her though, Dom would kill me. I don't do relationships and Dom would kill me if I just slept with her then dumped her. Oh well it's not like I don't get my fair share._

Jesse's thoughts

_I think I will like her. She looks nice. Dom said she is good with car designs. Maybe I can get her to help me with mine on the computer I need some more ideas. Will she help me? I wonder what's for dinner…_

Dom's thoughts

_Yeah I think it was a good idea that I let her stay here. We can protect her. Even if V doesn't like her he won't let her get hurt. He is so childish sometimes. It's not like he still doesn't have two rooms. Yeah I think she will learn to fit in. I wonder if she will like the races, I wonder if she can even drive._

"Hey Gabriella, you made it, and now you know everyone I think it's time for dinner" Dom said as he and Letty began to stand up and move towards the back yard, "tonight we are having a barbecue". Mia smiled when Dom said this. "You can help me make the salads if you want Gabriella" Mia asked. Gabriella nodded her head and followed Mia into the kitchen and they began the preparations for dinner.

**A/N I know I know, not the best ending for the chapter but I had to stop somewhere, anyway let me know what you think.**


	10. Chapter 9

**usual disclaimers ensue.**

**here is chapter 9... i should have updated sooner but it seems that i am lazy and haven't. but here it is i hope you enjoy it.**

**PS. thanks to everyone for the reviews, keep em comming.**

The team and Gabriella were seated around the bench in the garden, preparing to eat.

Just as Gabriella began to wonder why no one was getting anything, Jesse reached in and took the first piece of chicken. "Ah Jesse, you know the rules, the first to take the food has to say the prayer." Dom Laughed. Jesse looked momentarily worried and then began his prayer "Dear Heavenly" he paused in thought "Spirit, thank you for providing us with the direct-port nitrous injection, four core intercoolers, ball bearing turbos and titanium valve springs, thank you also for Gabriella and her car designs. Amen."

Gabriella looked at Dom who was sitting opposite her, with a confused look. He returned her gaze with a shrug "who ever eats' first, preys first" he announced. "To who? The car gods?" Gabriella asked incredulously. Dom smirked at her "exactly".

For the next five minutes or so the team were engaged in mindless chatter and eating. Gabriella was sitting amidst this atmosphere in complete wonder. She had never sat at a table and eaten in an atmosphere that was so happy and carefree. At her home all meals were consumed in complete silence with a tense environment. Gabriella was so consumed by her thoughts that she almost jumped out of her skin when Leon started to talk to her "Hey, Gabriella, I didn't mean to scare you" He said with a slight bit of concern. She shook her head "You didn't, you just make me jump, I'm sorry, did you ask me something?" she replied quietly.

Leon laughed "yeah, I said where are you from, you know before you came here?"

"Oh, um Las Vegas", she replied shyly, Leon nodded in acknowledgement "Vegas? Cool I always wanted to go, what's it like? He asked curiously.

"It's …good. It's hot all the time, I'm not sure if it's hotter than here but it's more breezy here because of the sea, you know" Gabriella said with conviction. As she said this the team became silent in shock. They had all just heard Gabriella speak the longest sentence she had spoken in front of them all.

"Wow so she _can_ speak" Vince said snidely causing Gabriella to blush. He smirked and was about to say something else but Jesse interrupted him. "You Draw" he said to her out of the blue, Gabriella looked at him confused, "Draw what?" she asked him. Jesse didn't seem to understand as he looked at Dom in bewilderment "I don't understand" he told him.

Dom laughed at Jesse's face but tried to be correct it before he upset him too much "Jesse, ask her again with a full sentence" he said still smiling at him. Jesse nodded and turned back to Gabriella, "Gabriella, Dom told me that you drew designs for cars, um is it true?" he asked. Gabriella looked at Dom momentarily with her eyes narrowed in annoyance causing him to snort with laughter and then turned back to Jesse "yes I do why?" she asked him in return.

"Well I was wondering, will you show me them" he said eagerly. Gabriella nodded slightly, "they aren't that good Jesse, but I will if you want" she replied. Jesse nodded happily and began to clear his plate as everyone else got ready to go back inside.

As he watched everyone clear away Dom began to think about what Gabriella had last said '_so she doesn't think that her designs are good, even though I said they were? Oh well she'll learn. Maybe if she works with Jesse it will help her settle in. She doesn't like men but he is young and not like the guys she is used to"._

Indoors after dinner

After dinner the team went their separate ways once they had gone inside. Leon and Jesse had parked themselves on a couch in front of the playstation and television and looked like they were going to stay there for the rest of the night. How long that would be was anybodies guess as it was already going up to ten o clock. Vince was sitting with them passing in unhelpful comments along the way. Dom and Letty had disappeared upstairs and you didn't have to be a rocket scientist to work out what they were doing.

Mia was with Gabriella in the kitchen and they were cleaning up the dishes. "That wasn't so bad was it?" Mia asked Gabriella as she passed her a plate to dry. "What wasn't? Gabriella asked in a clueless tone. Mia laughed "meeting the team" she said.

"Oh, no it was quite painless. I actually felt…safe, even though Vince doesn't like me and Letty hasn't spoken to me" Gabriella replied. Mia turned to her and smiled slightly, "I told you Vince is an ass just ignore him, and Letty is a bit possessive over Dom. She's great once you get to know her but she doesn't trust new people, especially attractive women. Dom used to…stray and it's taken her a long time to stop him and get him to just stick with her." She explained. Gabriella thought for a minute "So she thinks I'm a threat", Gabriella asked sceptically. Mia nodded "Well more of a worry, really" she said.

"She doesn't need to worry" Gabriella replied.

"I know that, you know that and soon Letty will realise that." Mia replied with a grin.

They finished doing the dishes and went into the front room. As they had been talking for a while washing up had taken longer than they thought. It had taken them until almost 11 o clock and the guys were still playing on the Playstation. As they entered the room the guys momentarily looked in their direction before turning back to the game.

"Hey Leon, I need to go upstairs and do some stuff on the computer for Dom, he wanted it by tomorrow but I, um I forgot so I um need to go now" Jesse said guiltily. Leon raised his eyebrow at him "fine bro, I'm gonna call it a night anyway, see you guys in the morning" he said as he got up and began to leave the room. Jesse looked around before announcing that he was leaving and he followed Leon out of the room so he could go and work on his computer. Vince looked at Mia and Gabriella "what you two doing now then" he asked in a bored tone of voice.

"Well, I'm sorry Gabriella I have a paper due tomorrow that I need to finish so I'm afraid I need to leave you" Mia said apologetically. Gabriella nodded, "it doesn't matter anyway, I'm tired so I am going to go and get some sleep." She replied. Mia nodded "okay, night then Gabriella, Vince" she said and then left the room.

Gabriella felt unusually nervous as she realised that only she and Vince were left in the room. She looked over at him shyly and realised he had a malevolent smirk on his face. This made her feel uneasy so she quickly left the room and entered the kitchen. She made her way to the sink and retrieved a glass of water to take to bed with her.

Vince's POV

_So we are alone,_ he thought evilly, _maybe I should have a little fun, I'll just scare her a bit. _He followed her into the kitchen and watched as she stood facing away from him at the sink. He silently walked up behind her so he was less than two feet away from her. He watched as she turned around and almost dropped her glass when she saw him standing there. She froze on the spot and just looked at him as he watched her.

Gabriella's POV

' _Oh my God, what's he going to do? Dom said I'd be safe here, he said no one could harm me whilst I am here, but Vince looks like he might hurt me. He isn't moving he's just staring' _She thought '_Calm down Gabriella maybe he just wants to get to the sink'._ She thought a minute later.

"V -Vince, excuse me", she said as she went to move around him. Vince scowled, "Excuse you? Why what have you done?" Vince asked snidely as he moved towards her ominously.

"N-No, I m mean can you move please?" she asked as she began to shake slightly out of fear. She could feel her breath getting faster as she tried to look Vince in the eye and will him to move. For a moment she thought he wasn't going to do anything but then his expression changed slightly and he moved backwards out of her way. She hurried off as quickly as she could, not looking behind her as she went.

Vince's POV

He watched her with amusement when she froze for a couple of seconds before speaking. When she excused herself he couldn't resist not making something out of it and stepped forward a few steps to see if he could intimidate her. When she asked him to move again he couldn't help but noticing that she was shaking. He was going to push the matter further but something in her face made him stop '_I know I'm a scary guy'_ he thought _'but I only meant to mess with her a bit and she looks unusually petrified' _He stepped back reluctantly and let her pass.

He stayed in the kitchen for a moment and listened to her open the basement door and then shut it behind her before he turned back to the sink consumed in thought. '_I think I'm just going to ignore her. I won't be nice to her but I'll try not to terrorise her…much. I don't know why but maybe I shouldn't, Dom said she was a bit weird and I think he is right…whatever I'm tired and I don't care. GRRR' _He thought all together as he too poured a glass of water and proceeded to the basement. On his way downstairs he curiously listened at Gabriella's door and was stunned to hear nothing coming from her room. _' wow she gets to sleep fast…see she is weird'._

Gabriella's POV

She walked as fast as she could down to the basement without looking back at Vince. The guy really scared her. She couldn't work out why he was so hostile. _'Dom said that's just the way he is and so did Mia, but it really seems like he has something against me!... Gabriella your being paranoid… but what if it's true, oh I don't care, I'll just stay away from him. Yeah that's it I'll just stay away from him.'_ Gabriella looked around her and realised suddenly that she hadn't even put the lights on and was sitting in the dark, she had heard Vince go to bed at least five minutes ago and there she was sitting like a mad woman in the dark like it was completely normal. She laughed at the thought. She had always assumed that she had always led a normal life, completely unaware that most women weren't afraid of their own families, and then in the space of a week her whole idea of normal had changed, now she really was confused '_so what exactly is normal' _she thought as she got ready for bed '_I don't think it's you Gabriella, dear if you were normal you wouldn't have moved into her house full of strangers'. _She climbed into bed and drifted into a peaceful sleep.

**so let me know what you think.**


	11. Chapter 10

**Here is chapter 10. I hope you think it's okay. Not much goes on but anyway here you go…**

**Thanks for reviewing btw**

She awoke with a start the next morning and looked at her small alarm clock. It was only 6am. Groaning inwardly she slowly sat up in bed, knowing that she would not get to sleep again that morning.

It was so untimely that she knew that no-one else would be up. She got out of bed and padded as quietly she could to her bedroom door and then up the stairs. She didn't want to risk waking Vince, considering the way they ended things the night before.

When she arrived in the kitchen she yelped in surprise. Jesse was sitting at the table with what looked like yesterdays food.

He was so surprised that he promptly dropped what he was eating and leaped out of his chair. Gabriella couldn't help but laugh. "I am really sorry Jesse, I didn't expect anyone else to be up and… are you alright I didn't scare you did I?" He shook his

head.

"I normally get up way before anyone else. I don't sleep much. I like to be awake… wait why are you up?" Jesse asked, speaking so quickly it was almost like one long word.

"Oh okay, I'm up because normally once I wake up I can't get back to sleep… it's an old habit" She stated thinking momentarily about having to get up early to make sure everything was ready for when her father and brothers awoke.

She sat down at the table opposite Jesse and watched him eat. She noticed that he didn't seem to be able to stay focused on what he was doing for long.

"Jesse, I don't mean to be rude but it seems to me that you have a short attention span, am I right?" she asked curiously. Jess nodded his head.

"I have A…AD…ADD" he said after some thought. Gabriella nodded her head in understanding.

"Okay I was just wondering" she answered, "so what is there to eat around here?"

Jesse pointed to the cupboard above the sink "we have some cereal in there and there is milk in the fridge and some of yesterdays food, but I think I ate all that" he said. Gabriella nodded and started to get herself some cereal, as she was halfway through she realised that once in her life she didn't feel threatened being alone with a male. She glanced back at Jesse and realised that he might be slightly older than her but he behaved like he was still a teenager, which made him seem more friendly, he came across as a genuinely nice person and she hoped that they would become friends.

"So what does everyone do around here during the day?" Gabriella asked Jesse. He paused his eating for a moment and thought about it before answering, "Well it is Friday so the garage is only open until 1.00 so everyone finishes then and goes over to Mia at the shop. We normally have lunch and then we get ready to go to the races if there is one or we work on our cars and then go to a party somewhere" he replied

Gabriella nodded "so what do I do then? I can't work on the cars obviously. Do you know what Dom wants me to do?" She asked. Jesse shook his head.

"I don't know you should ask Dom", he said.

They sat there talking for a while and eventually began to hear movement from upstairs. "Sounds like they're getting up, it will be Mia first, then Leon followed by Letty and Dom" Jesse said. She nodded.

"I had better go and get dressed then" she said as she looked down at her pyjamas and grimaced, she really didn't want everyone to see her in them, they weren't exactly flattering. She gave Jesse a smile and went back down into the basement.

There was still no movement from Vince's room and for that she was glad, it meant that she was able to shower in the basement's bathroom and then get dressed without being worried about where he was all the time. This way she could avoid him more easily.

She showered quickly and scuttled back towards her room afterwards wearing just a towel. She didn't want to risk anyone seeing her practically naked. Unfortunately for her Vince just appeared out of his room. She yelped in surprise and Vince growled in response.

'_Oh no, no no no it couldn't have been anyone else but him could it? Grrr, just keep walking Gabriella your room is just next door, DO NOT make eye contact' _She thought desperately.

Pulling her towel more tightly around her she practically ran to her room and slammed the door shut behind her.

Vince stood in the Hallway momentarily stunned and slightly annoyed. He watched as Gabriella walked out the bathroom apparently in a hurry and then yelp in surprise at the sight of him. He growled at her, he couldn't help it. He never had been a morning person and here was a woman who had STOLEN his room no less who seemed surprised to see him. He had had half a mind to block her path but he couldn't be bothered it was too early for a confrontation of any kind. Eventually he went into the bathroom and turned on the shower but not before glaring at her bedroom door.

Gabriella decided to wear a mid thigh length crème mini with a crème beater underneath a black off the shoulder t-shirt. She put on her simple black pumps and proceeded to fix her hair, all the while mentally kicking herself about her encounter with Vince.

She couldn't go on letting him make her feel intimidated yet he reminded her so much of her brothers. He seemed hostile towards her all the time. He was a lot bigger than her brothers so whatever damage they could cause her he could cause her ten times more. She sighed and finished putting her hair into two simple buns at the side of her head, they were loose with some strands hanging down but they didn't look too bad.

By the time Gabriella got upstairs everyone was already up. She walked into the kitchen and took a seat next to Mia. "Morning Gabriella" Dom said when he saw her come into the room. He chuckled "you sleep in even later than Vince". Gabriella blushed slightly before answering.

"Actually I was second up today I got up and six and sat here with Jesse until I heard everyone moving then I went back downstairs to change" She stated simply. Everyone looked at her in surprise and then Dom spoke again, "Why were you up so early" he questioned, Gabriella shrugged.

"I always am" she stated simply.

She started a conversation with Mia when Dom suddenly clapped his hands making her squeal. He raised his eyebrow at her reaction before he started to speak. "Well come on everyone hurry your asses up, we need to get to work BEFORE the customers" he declared as he started to look for his car keys. Everyone grumbled and begrudgingly went out to their respective cars.

Gabriella and Dom were left alone in the kitchen. He was still looking for his keys.

"Dom?" she asked "what am I going to do, I mean you said I could work for you or something to do with my drawings and I don't really know what you mean and well what am I supposed to do today?" she finished quickly.

Dom stopped his frantic searching momentarily and looked at Gabriella, "Um I am trying to set something up for you to do but I haven't finished planning it so, you can either stay here for the day or you can come to the garage with me or you can go to the shop and help out Mia for today, it's up to you" he paused for a second "have you seen my keys?" Gabriella smirked,

"Have you checked your pockets?" she asked, Dom shook his head and proceeded to check his jacket pockets. Gabriella almost burst out laughing at the look on his face when he found them.

"So where do you want to go today then?" he asked

"I'll go to work with Mia" she replied. He nodded his head in agreement.

"Come on then I'll drop you off on the way" he said. Gabriella followed him to his car and slipped into the passenger seat. This was going to be her first day of actual work.

**Gabriella's Fathers house**

"Sean, Taylor have you found your sister yet?" Gabriella's father yelled at his sons. He was pissed. His daughter had run out on him and he would not rest until he dragged her home and had her punished for her audacity. It had been a day since he had seen her leave and he was getting even angrier.

"No dad" Sean said tiredly. He and his brother had been looking for Gabriella and so far they had found no sign of her.

"We don't know where she could have gone. As far as we know she didn't have any friends" Taylor cut in before Sean could say anything else.

"Well she must have at least one friend. The woman she drove off with obviously knew her" Their father bit out.

"Did you see what the car was dad? The registration plate maybe?" Taylor asked thoughtfully.

"I saw the car but not clearly enough to make out anything except that it was a turquoise colour and was some kind of Honda. It was supped up too. That narrow it down enough for you boy?" he asked nastily.

The boys shook their head at the same time and everyone sat in silence. "The last place that I know she went was a grocery store" Sean chipped in.

"Yeah? What grocery store?" their father sighed.

"Toretto's something or other. Why?" Taylor asked

"Well dumbass, maybe she met someone their or maybe she already knew someone their. I don't know but I do know that it would be a good place to look. Now go before I really lose my temper with you two" he paused "and remember boys, Just think about how she has disrespected us. I want her back; she needs to learn her place!"

Taylor and Sean left their house and clambered into their pick up truck. They were angry at their sister too. Their father was right. She had disrespected them. She knew the rules, knew that she was to do as she was told. They drove off towards Toretto's although both of them were unsure as to weather or not anyone their would remember or recognise her.


	12. Chapter 11

**Hello again everyone, I know it's been months since I updated but I have had exams again, college is a lot harder than I thought it would be.**

**I know this chapter is short and not much happens but I am going to try and update more often, I'll aim for once a week but I don't know if I can manage that.**

**Anyway thank you for continuing to read this and I swear I'll get to the romance eventually.**

**Usual disclaimers ensue.**

Gabriella and Mia spent most of the morning in the shop. Mia had shown Gabriella some of the basic things that she did around the store, including how to run the cash register. They spent their time between serving customers and chatting away, getting to know each other. It had been a slow day so far and the customers they did have didn't spend long in the store, therefore giving them chance to talk.

So far Mia hadn't breached the subject of Gabriella's obvious abuse at the hands of her family but she was curious and really wanted to know why they behaved the way they did and why Gabriella hadn't left before now. She decided she couldn't wait any longer to ask her questions.

"Gabriella, can I ask you something personal?" she said cautiously. Gabriella paused for a moment and she replied. "You can ask but I won't promise you an answer if it's too personal," she replied.

"Why did your family treat you the way you did? I don't mean to be rude or anything but I really am curious to understand." Gabriella sighed deeply before answering.

"I don't really know why they treated me like that. I think my father has always treated women as second class citizens. I think he treated my mother badly too before she died. I don't really remember him ever saying anything kind to me or ever feeling safe and comfortable in that house. As for my brothers, I assume they just copied my dad. They are 3 years younger than me but they're just like my father, I don't know maybe he taught them to behave like he does." She said thoughtfully. Mia just nodded in response. She still couldn't understand the treatment and it was obvious that Gabriella didn't either so she didn't bother asking anymore about that, but there was something else she wanted to know.

"Can I ask you one more question?" she asked. She got a nod in response and proceeded, "Why didn't you leave before now?", this time it took longer for Gabriella to answer, "It's hard to explain. You have to remember that I have never known any different. I remember before my mom died that he told her he would never let her go and that if she left he would hunt her down and drag her back and that her life would be a whole lot worse. When she passed away and he moved even more of his anger onto me he started to tell me the same thing. I know what he's like, that he is capable of making my life the worst kind of hell." She took a breath before she continued, "I have never had any friends, if I'm honest, you and Dom are the first people in my life who have cared enough to see anything was wrong, even though you didn't know me. When Dom offered me a place to stay I was torn between fear of my family and the refreshing prospect of freedom. Even though I have left them I have a feeling that they will still be looking for me, but for once I'm not just scared for me but I'm scared for you and the guys," she finished sadly.

"Gabriella, I think I actually understand what you are saying. You were scared because you know what he's capable of, but you don't have to be anymore. You said yourself you have never had anyone to back you up before. Now you do, We will protect you, Dom, Leon, Jesse, Letty, Me and even Vince will make sure you are safe from them so don't worry. I know you think Vince doesn't like you, maybe that's true but I can honesty say he won't knowingly let anyone harm you, you're family now and REAL families look after each other," she finished with conviction.

"I just don't want any of you to get caught in the middle", Gabriella stated.

"We can look after ourselves" Mia said.

The rest of the morning went by quite uneventfully until around 12.30. Both girls were sitting at the front desk, when the door opened and a young man stepped inside. Gabriella was lucky to spot him before he spotted her and ducked quickly under the counter. The sudden movement startled Mia, who looked at the man as he came forward. She could tell he was looking for something. "Can I help you, sir?" She called out to him as he came in. He looked at her and finished walking to the counter.

"Actually you can, I'm looking for my sister, she went missing yesterday morning and I haven't seen her since. This is her" he said showing her a picture of Gabriella, "have you seen her?". Mia nodded her head.

"she came in here yesterday morning, it was the first and last time I had seen her though, I'm really sorry", she apologised. The man nodded his head at her.

"Well, thanks anyway," he said and turned around to leave. As he did he spotted Mia's Honda. "One more thing, do you know who that car belongs to?"

Mia shook her head "Sorry I don't". He nodded his head and left. She watched as he got in his truck and drove off down the road.

A couple of minutes later Gabriella stood up and looked at Mia. She could tell that she was visibly shaken. All of the colour had left her cheeks and she was trembling a bit.

"Are you okay?" Mia asked quietly. Gabriella nodded her head.

"yeah I will be, it just shocked me to see him here." She replied. Mia looked at her and decided the best thing would be to close early and to go over to the guys at the garage, at least then if he came back Gabriella was safe. There was only half an hour to go until closing anyway.

"come on we'll close early and go see the garage. I think we should tell Dom what happened."

"Okay, but only Dom, no one else." She replied.

Gabriella's fathers house

"Well dad, I went to the store and asked the woman if she had seen her. She said she had but only yesterday when she came in to get groceries. The car you described was parked out front but she didn't know whose it was. I had a thought though; the car looked like a racer. There is a race tonight, I heard about it from some guys I know. I figured if I went down there to check it out I could find out who the car belongs to and then track Gabriella down through the owner.", Sean told his father.

Gabriella's father sat in thought. The sooner he got that little bitch back the better. He looked at Sean and then a Taylor, "Okay, go to this race and see what you find out," he ordered them. He would get her back for what she had done if it was the last thing he did.

**There you go. I know it's long but like i said it will get better and i will update more often**


	13. Chapter 12

**Wow another chapter so soon, I think I just shocked myself. Thanks for the reviews guys and enjoy.**

**Ps.. normal disclaimers ensue.**

Gabriella, Mia and Dom were in the kitchen of the house, quietly discussing what had happened at the store. Dom was angry and wanted to tell the rest of the team what was happening, at least so they could keep their eyes open for anything out of the ordinary.

"No, Dom please don't tell them. They don't need to know. You said yourself that my family won't be able to find me and I agree. I don't think I have to worry." She said frantically, trying to convince him as well as herself. Dom shook his head as Mia just watched in amusement. Gabriella hardly ever argued with anyone as far as she could tell, but she was adamant this time about what she wanted.

"Fine Gabriella but I swear, next time something like this happens we will tell them, deal?" He finally said. Gabriella nodded with a small smile.

"Thank you Dom, I now you don't believe me but I really think that the less people involved the better." she told him.

They went into the front room in time to see the rest of the team come into the room with pizza. They always had some sort of takeaway on Fridays because it saved time when they were getting ready for the races.

They all tucked into the food and Gabriella listened with unexpected interest as they spoke about what was going to happen at the races that night. When she was in the company of every one at the house she felt shy, so her usual reserved nature came back and she preferred to listen to the conversations rather than join in. "Ella, can I call you that?" Jesse asked, she nodded her head yes and continued, "are you coming to the races tonight?". Gabriella shrugged her shoulders.

"I don't know Jesse, do you think I should?" she asked. Before he had chance to answer Dom cut in. "I think it's a great idea if you come along Gabriella, you will get to see all the different cars and the races, who knows maybe it will give you more inspiration for your designs," he said. She thought about what it would be like to actually see some of the cars she had seen in action, and how fantastic it would be to see all of the designs on cars she had yet to see.

"Okay", she said quietly, "I guess I'll come along". She smiled slightly.

Later that evening, Mia, Gabriella and Letty were all in Gabriella's basement room. It had surprised her when Letty had come in with Mia, but it seemed that whenever the races were involved the girls dressed to impress and they loved nothing more to help each other out with their outfits.Mia and Letty were both dressed and were applying their make up infront of Gabriella's mirror.

Letty was wearing a shot leather mini skirt, a black net top that finished at her midriff with a red bra showing through under it. She had on huge black platform knee high boots. Mia on the other hand was dressed in a more girly way but looked no less stunning. She was wearing and pink fitted halter top with a dark purple velvet mini skirt and pink stiletto shoes that matched her top.

Gabriella was standing behind a screen and had just finished getting changed. She felt very self conscious in what Mia and Letty had picked out for her and was about to change her mind when she heard a yell from upstairs."Girls, seriously if you don't hurry up the races will be over before we arrive!" Dom yelled downstairs. _'uh oh too late to change then'_.

Vince was grumbling to himself as he waited for the girls to come upstairs. He hated waiting around for them and couldn't understand why it took them so long every time they had to go out. Just as he was about to go storming down into the basement the door opened and Mia came out, looking good as usual followed by Letty and her signature boots.

He had a hard time keeping his mouth shut when he saw Gabriella, and from the looks of it so did Leon and even Jesse. Dom was too busy making out with Letty to notice how fantastic she looked.  
_Damn, she is HOT.'_ He thought. He knew she was pretty, but didn't realise just how good she looked until now.She was wearing a pleated, red plaid mini skirt that came just above her mid thigh and a black beater underneath a red net off the shoulder top. She was wearing Knee high buckled boots with heels on and they made her legs look like they went on forever.He had never really liked girly girls, except Mia but he was over that, and Gabriella was standing there totally punk rock.He looked away from her quickly, mentally kicking himself for thinking about her and walked out the front door, the rest of the team following behind him.

Gabriella rode with Dom to the races, Mia was with Letty, Vince and Leon had doubled up because Vince's car was running like it should and Jesse was following close behind. She felt self conscious and was regretting her clothing choices. She had a hard time believing Mia when she said that most of the girls there would be wearing less than her. She couldn't actually imagine wearing anything less than what she was wearing.

When they pulled up, however, she changed her mind. Mia was right half the girls here might as well have not put on any clothes, the good they were doing them. She felt slightly better when they got out of the car but she stuck to Mia's side like glue.

She looked around in fascination and awe at all the cars and people that were around. Everyone seemed to have their own group to which they belonged and it was obvious to her that Dom and his team were legends. She hadn't known how important racing was to her new friends but now she was beginning to understand.She was even able to overlook the fact that there were too many men around as she got caught up in the excitement. She had always loved these cars but had never seen any up close, only on the internet or pictures. Now that she was here she could barely contain her excitement.

She followed Mia and Leon up to a guy who was speaking to Vince and Dom. Her steps faltered a bit as she got nearer but she held her ground.

"Who's this fine Chica?," the man asked Dom whilst obviously checking Gabriella out. She moved slightly behind Leon as he replied, "this is the newest member of our family, Gabriella", Gabriella gave him one of her rare smiles when he called her a member of the family, "She's not THAT type of girl, hector", he said, repeating Dom's earlier words. Hector nodded his head and smiled slightly at Gabriella "Well then Gabriella nice to meet you, I'm hector and I think it's a damn shame that you ain't that type of girl 'cos we could have a good time, if you get what you mean," He smirked. Gabriella shook her head slightly and Dom chuckled and rolled his eyes at Hector, gently pushing him away, "Shut up you idiot, go find your self a racer chaser or something and leave our girl alone". Hector grinned and sauntered away.

Dom turned back to Gabriella with his hand firmly around Letty's waist who had just arrived moments before, "Ignore him Gabriella, he's an incurable flirt and he can't help himself when there is a pretty girl around, he tried it with Letty here once and she kicked him where it hurts… they haven't exactly been on speaking terms since." Letty chuckled at the memory and Gabriella smiled back at her.

"Okay, everyone", Dom called out, "we have our racers so lets race". Everyone around him scuttled to their cars. Leon and Vince went to Leon's, Mia went to Letty's and Dom went to his. That left Jesse and Gabriella standing there for a second before Jesse realised they were supposed to go. "Come on Ella, you can ride with me." Jesse said and he grabbed her hand.

They drove to the race site and watched as Dom, Hector and two other guys whom she hadn't met stopped at the makeshift start line. She was standing next to Jesse in front of the car and was having a hard time containing her excitement, shuffling around hyperactively on the spot. Jesse looked at her and smirked at her, "Hey Ella, I'm the one with ADD not you, stand still you're making me nervous" he said with a laugh. Gabriella blushed and nodded her head, "I'm sorry Jesse, I can't believe how excited I am," she giggled."yeah we'll make a racer out of you yet," he said with conviction, "you'll love it"."You'll have a hard time Jesse, I can't even drive let alone race." She told him quietly. Jesse was never one for being tactful and looked at her with shock, "you can't drive?!" he yelled loudly. Unbeknownst to him Vince was standing directly behind them and he let out a loud guffaw, "Oh shit girl, you are worse than I thought. Here you are at the most notorious street races in the state and you can't drive. You don't belong here", he said the last part slowly as if speaking to a child. Each word he said dripping with malice. He wandered off with a smug look on her face.

Jesse looked at Gabriella and saw the hurt look in her eyes. He tentatively touched her shoulder, "don't listen to him, Ella he doesn't know what he's talking about," he said reassuringly. She shook her head."That's the thing though, I think he's right," she said shakily as she tried to hide her sadness. "I swear I don't know what's wrong with him. I have been nothing but nice to him since I met him. Well that's it, I will not speak to him again. He will be completely ignored by me unless he says something important", she said indignantly. Jesse chuckled, "Seriously, and I thought Vince was being childish, turns out you are even worse." He paused "I will not speak to him again", he said mimicking her petulant voice. Gabriella glared at him with as much annoyance showing in her eyes as possible and he snorted laughter at her. This in turn made her laugh, "I'm sorry Jesse I didn't mean to sound so up tight he just upset me, you on the other hand I have known for less than two days and you are more of a brother to me than any of my own ever were", she said seriously. Jesse grinned at her goofily."Aww I got a sister, I always wanted one." He laughed, then nudged her arm pointing at the start line with the other, the race was about to start.

Dom won the race by a long shot and no one was surprised. Gabriella laughed at the reaction he got from the crowd and the huge grin that spread across his face. No one noticed the two young men that stood at the back of the crowd, each with frowns on their faces as they watched the interaction between their sister and the members of Toretto's team. They ducked away from the crowd and one of them pulled out a cell phone.

"Hello?" a voice said at the other end of the line.

"We found her dad, she's actually here at the races" The young man said in reply.

"Bitch. Follow her see where she goes and then come back here when you know where she is staying" The man told his son calmly with anger lacing his words.

"Okay, dad you're the boss," the young man said before he hung up. He turned to his brother, "Dad says we follow her and then go home and tell him where she is staying", he said. His brother nodded and they both walked away from the crowd down the street.

**Please keep sending reviews everyone! thanks again.**


	14. Chapter 13

**Okay here is another chapter, It's not that long but I needed a place to stop before I start the next part which I need a bit of time to think about, to work out how to write it. Anyway I hope you enjoy this bit.**

The next morning Gabriella was the only one in the kitchen early. She wasn't surprised, the Team hadn't arrived home until midnight and then they had a party that only finished a couple of hours ago. She had gone to bed at two thirty and had managed to sleep even with the loud music coming from upstairs. It was now six in the morning and once again she was wishing that she could sleep for longer because she was dead tired.

She had loved every minute of last night except for when Vince decided to be his usual obnoxious self. During the party Jesse had found himself a girl and so had Leon, leaving her alone with Mia.

She had learnt a lot more about there past last night and she was glad that Mia had trusted her enough for it. Mia had told her that eighteen months ago Dom had gotten the team in a lot of trouble. They were jacking lorries and stealing their contents. At the same time a guy called Brian had joined the team who unbeknownst to them had been an undercover cop. He and Mia had become close and she had fallen in love with him. Everything had gone sour when they attended race wars that year. They had lost Jesse for a while and were one man down when they went to do their last heist. As Vince had been jumping from Dom's car to the lorry, the driver had shot at him. Vince ended up stuck on the side of the truck and was shot. The wire he was using got wrapped around his arm and cut into it.

Brian and Mia had arrived on scene in time to get Vince off the truck and airlifted to hospital. Dom they found out then that Brian was a cop and left him to go and help Letty who had crashed her car and Jesse who they couldn't find.

Brian had turned up at the house later that day to try to get Dom to turn himself in. At that same moment Jesse turned up closely followed by the guy who he had 'stolen' a car from who shot him at close range. He had almost died.

Dom and Brian took off after the guys and one ended up dead the other was arrested. Dom had told Mia that he and Brian had raced and that even though Brian had won, he let him go free. The cops had tried to bring them all in for the heists but they had no concrete evidence as their undercover cop had gone AWOL and as he was the only witness to everything they could not get a conviction.

They left town for a while so that Jesse, Vince and Letty could recover from their injuries and had returned when everything had cooled down. Since then the only illegal things they had been doing was racing cars, not steeling them.

She had been shocked to learn that Jesse and Vince had almost died, but she was glad that Mia trusted her enough with that information.

She sat at the kitchen table drinking tea. Her head was hurting and she hoped it didn't get any worse. She was absent mindedly sketching another design in her sketch book and didn't notice the door to the kitchen open. She jumped when she heard a glass slamming onto the side and spilt her tea all over the table. "Crap", she muttered under her breath. As she brought her head up she looked into Vince's eyes, he was looking at her with a stony expression on his face.

For a moment she was back at home with her father, "I I'm r really s s s sorry I d d didn't mean to spill it, I I'll clean it up I swear" she stuttered in fear as she grabbed a cloth and began to clean it up as quickly as she could. Vince was still watching her but she daren't look into his face. If she had she wouldn't have seen any anger, just mild confusion.

She grabbed her notebook, put her tea cup in the sink, carefully staying out of Vince's way. "s sorry" she said again and ran out the room and back down into the basement.

(Vince's Perspective)

Vince watched her run away and shook his head slightly at the odd display. His head was thumping this morning. He couldn't understand what he had done to make her react like that. He hadn't even noticed her in the room until he heard he cuss under her breath. When he looked at her he had seen the flash of fear in her eyes and then she had started babbling about the tea. It had all happened so quickly he didn't have anytime to react to her words before she ran out the kitchen. _'there is something seriously wrong with that girl'_ he thought as he grabbed two Advil for his hang over headache.

(Gabriella's Perspective)

Gabriella sat on the floor of her room quietly calming herself down. She couldn't believe she had just freaked out on Vince like that. He hadn't even done anything to her and there she was rattling on about tea and being sorry. She rolled her eyes at her self in annoyance. _'okay smooth Gabi, way to go. I thought we were just going to ignore him' _she thought as she argued with herself in her mind, _'I'm trying to ignore him. But he looked so mad and I just flashed back to dad for a second and… oh I don't know'_she got up from where she was sitting and went and took a shower.

After dressing in fitted stonewash Jeans and a simple dark green tank top she went back up into the kitchen. When she arrived she could see that Vince had been joined by Mia. "Good morning Mia, I don't suppose you have any pain killers around here do you?" she asked whilst touching here head to emphasize her head ache. Mia nodded, "morning Gabriella, do you have a hang over" she asked, snickering slightly. She saw Vince open his mouth to say something but she ignored him and shook her head, "no not a hangover, just lack of sleep I think," she replied sheepishly. Mia raised her eyebrows at her but told her where the Advil was. While she was getting the pills she didn't notice that Vince was giving her strange looks but Mia did.

Jesse came bounding into the room and almost knocked Gabriella flying, "Sorry, Ella it was and accident," he grinned. Gabriella nodded and took the Medication she had in her hand. "It's okay Jesse" she said as she sat next to him at the table. They became deep in conversation and neither one noticed Mia motion for Vince to follow her out of the room.

(Mia's perspective)

"Okay V what were those looks you were giving her when she had her back turned?" Mia asked, referring to Gabriella. "What you talkin' about Mia?" Vince asked in his best confused Voice. "Don't even try it Vince you were looking at Gabriella as if she had grown two heads or something," she said angrily, "what gives?". Vince rolled his eyes, "God, Mia nothing 'gives'" he said slightly annoyed by her accusatory tone, "She just totally freaked out on me earlier and now it's like nothing happened and I was jus thinking maybe she's like BI-polar or some shit." Mia shook her head in confusion, "What do you mean freaked out?" She asked. Vince sighed,

"I went into the kitchen I didn't know she was there, I think I made her jump because she spilt her tea on the table then she gave me this look, like a startled rabbit or somethin' and then started rattling on about being sorry, she cleaned it up and left. I swear Mia I dunno what happened I didn't even say anything to her so, get off my back will you?", Mia nodded her head slightly as she thought about why Gabriella had reacted that way, "Okay, alright I'm sorry", she said. Vince looked at her and then headed to the front door. "Whatever Mia, tell Dom when he gets up that I'm gonna spend my day working on my car." She nodded at him and frowned slightly as she heard him mutter something that sounded suspiciously like 'women'.

She wandered back into the kitchen and saw that Gabriella was once again alone, "Hey where'd Jesse go?" she asked. Gabriella smirked before she answered, "I'm not quite sure, we were talking and then he said he forgot to do something, he might have told me what it was but he spoke too fast and left before I could find out what it was", she said as she giggled. Mia nodded.

"So what happened between you and Vince earlier?", Mia asked. Gabriella looked at her shocked for a moment. "I don't know what you're talking about Mia", Mia smirked a little at this as it was almost the same as what Vince as said, "Bull, Vince told me about you're strange reaction to him earlier what happened?" she asked. Gabriella sighed a little, "Nothing happened, I was drinking my tea and then he made me jump, I didn't know he was there, I spilled my tea. When I looked at him he seemed angry, I had a very _small_ flash back and freaked out a _little_ bit, that's all," She said quickly.

Mia nodded her head in understanding, just as Dom came into the room with Letty, "He won't hurt you Gabriella" Mia said in a whisper before she quickly changed her tone of voice as she greeted her brother cheerfully.

6pm later that day

The group were all in the garden discussing what they were going to do that evening. They were all lounging around in various places. Gabriella was sitting in the shade under a tree with sunglasses on to stop the light making her head hurt more. It wasn't too bad, just a dull ache but whenever she got headaches she became photo sensitive so wearing the glasses was a precaution.

"I want to go to that new club downtown," Leon said, "a friend of mine said it's awesome, he can get us in I just need to call him,".

There were general mutters of agreement around from everyone except Gabriella who wasn't paying much attention. She snapped out of her thoughts when she realised everyone was looking at her expectantly, "sorry, I wasn't listening," she muttered slightly embarrassed. Jesse chuckled, "we wanted to know if you wanted to hit this new club with us tonight?" Gabriella shook her head no.

"sorry not tonight I have a headache and going to a club would just make it worse," she said with a smile. Mia made a face of sympathy, "do you want me to stay with you?" she asked. "No, don't be silly, I'll be fine." She insisted. Mia nodded her head.

Two hours later everyone was ready to leave, the exception being Gabriella who was curled up on the sofa, telling Mia every time she asked that yes she looked good and no the skirt wasn't too short. She smiled slightly as Dom gently pushed Mia towards the front door. "See you later Gabriella" he chuckled as they went out the door. Gabriella smiled to herself. This was the first time she had ever had anytime to herself to relax. She laid her head on a cushion and flicked through the channels on the TV until she found and old movie. Letting out a contented smile as she watched she was completely unaware of the dangers that approached her.

**Please review.**


	15. Chapter 14

**Here's the next chapter, I think it might be longer than the others. This chapter contains, strong language and Violence. If this offends you don't read it. Sorry but that's the way it is.**

**Usual disclaimers ensue.**

Out side the Toretto house hold across the road sat Taylor and Sean. Gabriella's brothers. They had been sitting in the spot for most of the evening waiting for the right time to call their father. They were waiting for a time when Gabriella would be alone, but hadn't really expected her to be left alone that night,it seemed that luck was on their side.

"Dad she's alone", Taylor said into the cell phone.

"what, already?", he said

"Yeah, those thugs she's been staying with left here about 2 minutes ago, judging by the way they were dressed they were going somewhere fancy so I'm guessing they'll be gone for a while", Taylor stated carefully. There was silence at the other end of the line as his father contemplated his words.

"Okay, stay where you are' I am about five minutes away, it's time we paid the little bitch a lesson" he sneered. Taylor hung up the phone and turned to his brother. "He'll be here in five minutes." He paused, "Our sister is in for one hell of a surprise".

Ten minutes away at the opposite side of the town Vince was following Dom down the road in his car. He was in an irritable mood and felt less and less like he was going to enjoy the night out. His head still hurt a bit and his bad arm had been niggling at him all day. He let out a big sigh as he made up his mind. Picking up his cell phone he hit one on speed dial and put it on speaker phone. "Hey Dom," he said when it was answered. "Listen I'm gonna turn back and head home, I just ain't in the mood tonight man" He heard Dom sigh."Alright man whatever you say, see you later", he said. He was used to Vince's mood swings so he just let it go.Vince hung up the phone, did a swift U-turn in the middle of the road and sped off in the opposite direction.

Gabriella was startled by a loud knock on the door. _'who on earth is that_' the wondered as she went to the door. She didn't even think about looking to see who it was and just opened it. When she did she gasped and tried to slam the door shut, but he was too quick and much stronger than her. "Hello my dear daughter", her father sneered nastily as he shoved her back into the house and stepped in after her, her brothers following behind. She started to back away from him, but he was faster. "Not so fast girl." He bellowed, causing her to flinch. He had hold of her wrist in a death grip. "You disrespected me! You left us! Now you will pay!". He slapped her across the face, her head snapped back and she fell to the ground whimpering in pain. She tried to scuttle away from him but ended up backing into her brother's who yanked her up by the hair. "You are an ungrateful little bitch!" he spat at her before he punched her savagely in the ribs. She cried out in pain and struggled against her brothers' grip, trying desperately to escape.

She felt one of he brothers hit her in the back and they both let go of her, causing her to fall to the floor at the sudden loss of balance. She looked up at the three of them in fear and whimpered, "Please stop" she begged.She was so scared. She knew they were going to kill her, if not seriously injure her and there was nothing she could do to stop them. She couldn't remember having had as much of a vicious beating in her life. She tried to stop the tears from falling as she thought about the fact that she might not see her new family again."ahh!" she cried when her father started to kick her. She curled up into a ball to protect her head and prayed it would end soon.

Vince frowned as he came down the road and drew up to the house. There were two strange cars parked in front of the house and the door was open._'what the fuck?' _he thought. He knew he shouldn't have trusted Gabriella. He cursed silently as he threw his car into park and scrambled out the car. As he approached the door he heard yelling from the house "You good for nothing slut, How dare you lave us!" he heard.

Running in the door he couldn't help but stop in horror, the more he saw the quicker the anger washed over him.

Gabriella was curled up on the floor, obviously seriously hurting, he couldn't tell if she was conscious or not but he knew she wouldn't be for long if the three guys that were kicking and hitting her didn't stop.

He lunged at the older guy and punched him hard in the head before the man knew what hit him. "Get the fuck off her!" he yelled. He was so pissed he was almost literally seeing red. He saw the two younger guys come at him from the corner of his eyes and he ducked as one of them took a swing at him. He was a practised fighter. He boxed when he was younger and still did sometimes to keep fit. He punched one of them in the jaw and caught the other one in his stomach momentarily disorientating both.

He knew he didn't have time for a full on fight because he needed to get to Gabriella. "Get the fuck out of here right now or you will regret it you fucking assholes", he could barely put a full sentence together the stare he was in but he didn't care at that moment in time. He leant over the coffee table, opened the draw and pulled out a small gun. He pointed it at the older guy, and yelled "LEAVE NOW", and watched as they stumbled out of the door.

Gabriella sighed in relief as she felt the beating stop, but when she slowly started to realise why she instantly got scared again. Someone else was there. She couldn't tell who, but she knew it couldn't be good. She finally managed to get herself into sitting position in time to watch Vince pull a gun on her father. She gasped when she realised it was Vince and couldn't work out if she should still be scared. At that moment though, she couldn't think straight. She was in a lot of pain. She could feel blood running down her chin from her split lip and when she breathed her ribs shot pain through her, indicating that they were broken or badly bruised.

Vince heard a movement behind him and turned to see Gabriella sitting in an awkward position, looking at him with a mixture of surprise and fear. He walked towards her slowly, not exactly sure how to approach her in the situation like this. She backed away from him a bit and he realised that she was scared of him. "I'm not going to hurt you" he said as quietly and softly as he could, which for Vince was a hard feat in it's self. He saw that she relaxed a tiny bit. Sitting on the floor about a foot in front of her he looked at her in silence for a second. She looked pretty beat up. He sighed, "Gabriella, I think I'm gonna need to take you to the emergency room" he said cautiously. She shook her head slightly at him, "I don't want to go to the hospital, please just let me stay here" she asked him quietly, as if she was testing her voice. "I don't think that's a good idea, I don't know how bad your injuries are, you might have concussion or internal damage," he argued. She shook her head no. "I don't have concussion, please don't make me?" she begged to him. He guessed the stubborn look on his face made her continue, "I really hate hospitals, I can't go in them, I just….please Vince", she was crying now and he knew he couldn't force her to go, the look on her face was heart breaking even for him, he had never felt this kind of pain for another person before. He nodded.

"Okay, Okay, Gabriella, I won't make you go to the hospital," he told her as gently as he could, "but I will need to look at your injuries, I need to be able to see if they get any worse". He watched as Gabriella shook her head.

"No", she said, "It's fine really, I'm fine, I'll check my injuries in a bit, I'll be okay".

He scooted forward towards her and took her hand in his, he was just a couple of inches from her now and he watched as she started to shake a bit and tried to pull away. She started to cry a bit again, not full on sobs but just small whimpers. "Gabriella" he soothed, " I promise, I'm not going to hurt you, I promise I won't let those Guys, whoever they are hurt you, don't be afraid of me. I know I have been an ass to you, but I'm an ass to everyone. I made out that I don't like you but you didn't do anything wrong I'm just an angry guy, and I got jealous of you, but I won't let anyone hurt you okay?" He said to her. She gently nodded her head and stopped trying to pull her hand away from his. "Vince, I know who they were", she told him quietly. He tried to hide his surprised look from her but he obviously wasn't successful because she glanced away from him, obviously embarrassed. "Who was it?" he asked her. She glanced at him and looked away again, "it was my, um, mydadandmybrothers" she said quickly. Vince looked at her, he caught what she had said and he suddenly remembered what Dom had told him the day he had first talked about her. '_Dom was right_,' he thought, as he remembered the day they had first talked about Gabriella.

He watched as Gabriella tried to shift her weight and stand up but then she hissed at the pain that shot through her body.

(Gabriella's perspective)

Vince looked at her and then stood up. She watched as he leaned down towards her and then picked her up as if she was nothing she winced a bit and looked at him "What are you doing?" even in her current state she couldn't help but be indignant. Vince rolled his eyes at her, "I'm taking you to the kitchen so I can get the first aid kit and try to patch you up as well as I can," he almost laughed at her incredulous expression, "I swear, that's all I'm gonna do". She nodded at him and lowered her gaze, she felt like an idiot, having Vince carry her. She didn't really know the guy after all.

He sat her on the counter top carefully and she watched as he rummaged around looking for the first aid kit. When he found he turned back to her and poured out some antiseptic ointment onto cotton wool. "This might hurt a little," he told her. She nodded at him and he pressed it to her split lip. She hissed and went to move backwards but he held her head gently but firmly in place. "Sorry", he said as caught a tear that escaped her eye. She smiled slightly at him slightly, "It's not your fault," she answered.

Patiently she allowed him to wipe clean the dried blood from her face, trying her hardest not to cry out when he touched a tender spot. When he finished he looked at her. "Where else does it hurt?" he asked her. She looked at him, "My ribs hurt the most," she told him shyly. He nodded at her and smiled reassuringly, "Can I see them?" he asked.

She shook her head embarrassed. Even though she knew he wouldn't hurt her she didn't want him to see her without a shirt on. It was as if Vince sensed her apprehension and he gently touched her arm, "come on Ella," he said using them nick name Jesse had bestowed upon her, "It's just me, I think we have established I won't hurt you and I really need to make sure they aren't broken" he said. She sighed slightly and then nodded her head. He moved slowly and lifted up her tank top. When he got it to her bra he looked at her and she blushed, before taking the shirt and holding it there out of the way. "Damn" she heard him mutter. She looked at him questioningly, "what's wrong?" she asked. He looked up at her, "well they are already a nasty purple colour on the right they must have been hit hard, I'm gonna have to make sure they aren't broken so that might hurt a bit it needs to be done" he replied.

She nodded at him and watched as her pressed the top of her right ribs firmly he moved them down, she hissed and breathed in sharply and felt tears trickle down her face at the pain. Vince didn't stop but continued his examination. When he reached the bottom of the rib cage he looked back at her. "well, I don't think they are broken, just badly bruised. I'm sorry I had to do that but I had to be sure." He said as he wiped her tears away. She just nodded at him unable to trust her own voice. Letting her top fall back down she looked at him in the eyes for the first time, "thank you Vince. I don't know what would have happened if you hadn't come back, they could have killed me. Thank you so much." She said seriously. Vince smiled at her for the first time and awkwardly hugged her. She held onto him as if he was her lifeline and cried for a couple of minutes. Vince just held her until she was done.

"I'm tired but I shouldn't sleep for an hour after a head injury so will you help me down to the bathroom. I need to clean these up anyway." She said, pointing to the small hairline cuts on her arm where she had struggled to get away. He nodded and helped her down off the counter. She knew she could get down stairs alone and so did he but neither one of them wanted her to fall and hut herself.

She retrieved her night ware from her room and went to the bathroom. Vince stopped her before she went in, "Leave the door unlocked. If you fall I might need to be able to get to you, I'm going to go upstairs and clean up and lock the doors and then I'll be in my room. Come and see me when your done." He said. She nodded her head at him, "thanks again Vince", she said and then went into the bathroom.

**Please review, I like to know what you think.**


	16. Chapter 15

**One of my reviewers (you know who you are) told me Vince was a bit OOC in the last chapter and I guess she was right in way, however if you think about it what kind of guy would he be if he didn't make sure she was alright… I don't think even Vince could honestly just leave her after that kind of incident. So anyway he was a bit OOC but I'll try to get him back in character soon. sorry if there are any spelling mistakes.  
**

Vince was lying on his bed on his stomach watching the TV. Gabriella had been in the bathroom for fifteen minutes and he told himself that if she was any longer he would go and check on her. At that moment however he was contemplating what he was going to say to her. He desperately wanted to know why her family had done what they had done to her and if they were likely to come back, but he didn't know how to breach the subject to her. As he was thinking about it he noticed her stop at his bedroom door. It was obvious she was debating weather or not to knock, he took the decision out of her hands when he motioned for her to come in.

He watched as she walked towards him, when she was standing next to his bed he sat up and moved over so she had a space to sit down. She slowly moved her self into a comfortable sitting position and he watched her for a second, noticing for the second time in the last couple of days how pretty she was. He rolled his eyes at himself _' not the best time to be thinking about that V'_ he thought.

"Okay, so we need to talk about what happened," he said as she turned to look at him. She sighed and looked away. "Do we have to, can't we just pretend like it didn't happen?" she asked him hopefully. He almost laughed out loud, _'I can't believe she wants me to forget that it happened'_, " No Gabriella we can't", she glanced at him with a slight scowl on her face and he continued, "you can't just pretend it didn't happen, you need to let me know what's happening, I would think it better if you told the rest of the team too but I can't expect you to do that, so will you just answer my questions?" he asked her forcefully, not really giving her a chance to say no. She didn't even look at him, just nodded slightly to show she agreed.

"Have they always been like that?" Vince asked. She sighed audibly and nodded affirmatively. "Yeah they have. They never all hurt me at once before though, usually the physical beatings just came from my dad" she whispered, embarrassed that she had to tell Vince of all people. She glanced at him and saw that he had a blank expression on his face as he watched her. She shifted under his gaze uncomfortably and looked down again.

"How often did he hurt you, why did he hit you and," he paused not sure exactly sure to continue without showing his obvious anger, "why did you stay?".

"H- he hurt m me all the time, at least a couple of times a week, I don't r really know w why," she replied desperately trying not to cry. She had tried to forget what he had done to her in the past and Vince's questions were bringing memories back that she had tried to repress. "I didn't leave because I was scared and I had nowhere to go and I didn't know anyone and I never knew any different, I knew I was wrong but I had no evidence that anyone would treat me any different until I met Mia and Dom" she said in a rush as fresh tears came to her eyes. She was trying badly not to cry but at this rate she wasn't going to succeed.

Vince listened intently to what she had to say. He was getting so angry he could barely contain it. He wasn't mad at her obviously, he was mad at the situation she had been in. He felt the need to go hit something but was trying to contain his anger for Gabriella's sake. He didn't think it would be good for her if he went completely mental. He was watching her and knew she was trying not to cry. He didn't really know what to do, he didn't really know her that well. He was so wrapped up in his thoughts that he was startled when she turned to look at him. He saw her try to back away from him a little bit and felt confused. He reached his hand out to stop her from moving and she flinched. He frowned a bit, "Hey Gabriella what's wrong?" he asked as softly as he could. "You looked mad at me," she replied softly, "I just got scared a bit, it's an old habit I used to know when my dad was mad and when I was going to come of badly," Vince nodded his head in understanding.

"I won't hurt you, no matter how mad I get I wouldn't hit you, besides I'm mad at your family not mad at you." He replied. She nodded at him and he actually felt himself smile a little bit as she moved back next to him.

"Do we have to tell Dom and everyone else?" Gabriella asked. Vince nodded his head. "They need to know, so they can keep there eyes open, besides I don't think you can hide your injuries. They might hurt now but by tomorrow I think that you will be kinda stiff so you won't be moving as you should." He replied.

"Okay," she nodded resignedly and then yawned. She smiled at him slightly, "I guess I should go to bed" she said.

He nodded at her and watched as she slowly moved off the bed, her injuries making it more difficult for her. She walked to the door and looked down the darkened hallway. He instantly noticed her hesitation and knew it wasn't because of her pain. "What's up Gabriella?" She turned back to look at him and he saw that she was contemplating something, he could tell she was about to say something so he just waited. "Willyouwalktomyroomwithme?" she asked quickly. He laughed at her he couldn't help it. She instantly went red and looked at the floor. He chuckled. "sorry Gabriella it's just that you spoke so fast I didn't hear what you said".

She didn't really know how to tell him that she was scared to walk the couple of steps to her room alone. She felt stupid and it embarrassed her but she asked him any way but more slowly this time, "I'm scared Vince, will you walk to my room with me, I don't know why I just… I know they've gone, I just can't explain it…." She trailed off uncertainly.

He thought for a second at what to do, if she was scared to go down the hall then how would she cope alone in her room. "Stay here with me tonight Gabriella, maybe it will help you sleep better," he said surprising both her and himself. He thought about it for a second and realised he didn't actually mind if she stayed with him. She was looking at him funny and he wondered what she was thinking. He found out soon enough, "I can't share a bed with you Vince, you're a man."

She mentally slapped herself when she said that "I didn't mean that to sound so stupid but I ….. I" she thought for a moment, "Would it really be okay if I stayed with you tonight?" she asked as she changed her mind.

"Sure you can stay, I don't bite promise. You can get into bed and turn out the light and" he looked at the clock "I think I'll try to get some sleep too, it's 10' o clock , it's early for me but I'm still tired from yesterday" he replied. She smiled at him and walked back to the bed. He moved off and let her in and slid in after her, he had changed earlier on while she was in the shower. She tried to get into a comfortable position with out putting pressure on her ribs and faced away from him as he turned the light out . They laid in silence for a while.

10 minutes later Vince thought that she was asleep but was proven wrong when she suddenly spoke to him in a whisper. "Vince are you awake?", he turned onto his side so he was facing her back, "Yeah I'm awake, what's up?" he asked.

"Nothing's up I just wanted to say thank you for everything you did for me tonight," she said sleepily. He moved towards her and pulled her back against his chest. She tensed for a second but then relaxed, obviously comfortable, "it's okay, I'm glad I came back, who knows what would have happened, I'm glad you are safe," he whispered. "Thank you" she mumbled. He smirked, she had gone to sleep and he drifted off closely behind her.

Dom and the team returned at 1am and were all talking loudly. Everyone went up to there own rooms except Dom who went to the kitchen to get water. He had expected Vince or Gabriella to still be up and was surprised when he found the house silent. He reached the kitchen and spotted something red on the side. He frowned and walked over to it and realised it was a piece of bloodied gauze. He looked behind him and saw that the first aid kit was out. Instantly worried he moved quickly downstairs to the basement. He knew Vince and Gabriella were the only ones here.

He reached Gabriella's door and knocked gently, when she didn't answer he turned the handle and stuck his head inside, she wasn't there and charged his way down the hall and into Vince's room.

"Vince, Gabriella's gone!" he yelled not caring that he was asleep. Vince shot up in his bed, forgetting he had his arms around Gabriella and ended up bashing her injured ribs. She woke up and gasped in pain and bewilderment, not quite sure what was happening.

"Dom what are you doing?" Vince moaned whilst trying to soothe Gabriella who was still gasping in pain.

"What am I doing? What are you doing?" Dom asked confused, he didn't know what they were doing but he was going to find out. He noticed that Gabriella had started to cry, "what the hell did you do to her Vince?" he asked.

"Dom, just calm down man. I haven't done anything to her, I swear." Vince said as calmly as he could. Dom raised his eyebrow at him obviously not believing his answer. She was crying and yet she was in his bed so something must be wrong. Gabriella turned to look at Dom and suddenly realised where she was and what was happening. "Vince isn't lying Dom he didn't do anything wrong." She told him quietly.

"Why was there blood upstairs and why are you crying in Vince's bed, when I left you hated each other" he said more quietly. Gabriella looked at Vince and he replied for her "I came back here because I wasn't feeling good like I told you but when I got here I noticed the door was open. I thought that Gabriella had betrayed us and let burglars in or something," he said feeling slightly guilty as he looked at Dom who was still standing with his arms folded leaning against the door frame.

"Well I came inside and I saw three guys beatin' on her." He said.

Dom scowled, "What do you mean beatin' on her? Who the hell was it Gabriella?" he said loudly, clearly annoyed.

Gabriella looked at him, her eyes swimming with unshed tears, "It was my dad and my brothers, I don't know how they found me again." She said sadly. Dom groaned and sat on the end of the bed in front of Vince and Gabriella. "Do you think they'll come back again?" he asked them.

Vince was about to answer but Gabriella jumped in before him, "I thought he might but Vince pulled a gun on them so maybe they won't", she said hopefully. Dom stared at Vince who was looking back sheepishly, "you pulled a gun on them?" he ground out incredulously.

"Hey, don't look at me like that she was seriously hurting I didn't know if she was conscious I had to get them to leave" he said defensively. Dom smirked a little bit as he contemplated the next question, "so why are you in Vince's bed Gabriella?" he asked.

Gabriella blushed and Vince just glared slightly, "Dom, get your head out of the gutter, she was terrified so we thought it would be best if she stayed here for tonight," he said whilst rolling his eyes at the immature look on Dom's face. Gabriella nodded in agreement, "can we leave the rest of this conversation for later Dom? I'm really tired," she said hoping it would make him leave so they could go back to sleep. Dom nodded his head and reluctantly left the room.

He walked back up to his room contemplating two things, what was he going to do about Gabriella's family and what was going on between her and Vince.

Vince looked at Gabriella and smiled slightly, "that went better than I expected it would," he said dryly. Gabriella nodded in agreement, "yeah it did, he seemed awfully surprised that I'm in your bed though," she giggled, "he's not exactly subtle is he, the way he came charging in here you'd have thought the house was on fire, I mean he checked my room and obviously I wasn't there, what makes him think I wasn't in the bathroom or something?" she asked slightly amused despite the situation. Vince shook his head, "I really don't know, sometimes I guess he acts before he thinks, he isn't always as level headed as everyone thinks he is," he replied with a shrug of his shoulders, "are you okay by the way, I bashed you when I woke up didn't I?".

Gabriella nodded and lay back down in the bed with a yawn, "let's sleep, I have a feeling I'm going to have a lot of explaining to do in the morning," she said as she shut her eyes. He lay down next to her and switched off the light that Dom had turned on. _'so, I guess she's not so bad' _Vince thought as he fell asleep.


	17. Chapter 16

Chapter 16

**Okay guys, I'm gonna be honest with you. It has taken me a lot longer than I anticipated to do this chapter for a number of reasons. Firstly, I couldn't think of a way to do this chapter even though I have the rest of the story planned. Then when I thought about attempting it I had to start studying for my exams instead, but now they are over and It is the summer holidays so in between working, work experience and a small holiday I will be going on with my friends I will continue with this story.**

**I really enjoy writing it so I'm glad to be back on track,**

**I'm sorry if this is quite bad but my writing has gone a bit rusty, so I hope you are all still reading this and thanks for the support.**

Gabriella awoke the following morning to the feel of something heavy resting on her waist and a strange noise in her ear. She couldn't figure out where she was for a moment, until she looked down and realised that it was an arm on her waist and that it was attached to Vince who happened to be lightly snoring next to her face.In that moment, last night previous events flooded back into her head and she groaned slightly, knowing she had to speak to the rest of the team.She moved slowly from under Vince's arm and winced slightly as she sat up and looked at his alarm clock. It read 9.00 am, which surprised Gabriella as she was usually up much earlier. She shrugged a bit, putting it down to the trauma her body had been through the previous night and proceeded to leave the bed.

As she reached the door she heard a grumbling voice and turned around to see Vince squinting at her out of one half opened eye, apparently he wasn't a morning person judging from the frown on his face."Where you goin'?" he muttered. She shook her head slightly and smirked at the irked look on his face. "I'm going to get a shower, get dressed and then face the day, I did promise Dom that I would speak to the team today after all" she replied.He nodded his head at her and then answered her with an almost unrecognisable sentence "Whatever. Too early. Sleepin'" then he promptly dropped off to sleep again. Shaking her head again she wandered down the hall to the bathroom and took a shower before dressing and heading upstairs to see if anyone was up.

As it was Sunday she knew that the team weren't going to work and judging from the time they got in that morning she assumed they probably wouldn't be up for a while, which is why she was so surprised to find Mia, Jesse and Leon all up in the kitchen.They all looked at her when she entered and their expressions immediately turned into shock. She understood why. When she had looked in the mirror that morning she had seen that the right side of her face, just under her eye on her cheek bone had a nasty bruise and her lip was split and slightly swollen, add that to the fact that she could barely move her right arm due to the pain in her ribs she looked and felt like she had done ten rounds in a boxing match.

Leon was the first one to find his voice, "what the hell happened to you?" he asked her bluntly. Gabriella shook her head, "do you really want to know?" she replied hoping he would say no. Leon looked at her with an incredulous look, "of course I want to know and I bet they do too," he said whilst pointing to Mia and Jesse who had yet to say anything.

"Oh my god, Gabriella did they get you? I knew I should have stayed home last night, I'm so sorry," Mia said in a rush of guilt and worry for her friend."hey, Mia it wasn't your fault. No one could have predicted that they would find me so soon and even if you were here there was nothing you could have done" She replied reassuringly.

"Did we miss something, who found you? I didn't know you were hiding, did you?" Jesse asked Gabriella and Leon at the same time.

"No I didn't know, care to explain?" Leon asked.

Gabriella swallowed and took a deep breath, she guessed now was a good a time as any to tell them. She just didn't know where to begin. She thought for a moment and then decided to explain to Leon and Jesse her story from the beginning.

"well, I guess I can say that up until last night the only people that knew the real reason why I came here were, Dom and Mia and then after last nights incidents I had to fill Vince in." she paused for a second a she thought about how to continue, "for me to be able to properly explain I will have to tell you a bit of my life story. My dad is a drunk and abusive and my brothers are just plain abusive. My dad used to take his anger out on my mother but she died four years ago. After that my dad turned on me. I had always been terrified if him but it got worse", she stopped for a second to compose herself and fight off the urge to cry, "I first met Dom at the beach, he figured it out but I wouldn't admit it and then I met him again at the shop after my dad had hurt me again and he and Mia let me stay here. They think I belong to them, that's why they came to get me, if it wasn't for Vince they would have succeeded", she finished.

There was silence for a few seconds before Leon broke the silence, "Do you think they will come back?" he asked cautiously. Gabriella shrugged her shoulders, "I don't know, maybe, I was thinking about leaving, it's not fair on you guys." She replied quietly.

Unbeknownst to her, Dom and Letty had walked into the kitchen behind where she was sitting, "Don't you dare leave Gabriella, you're family now and families stick together," He told her.Gabriella cringed, she hadn't wanted Dom to here that she wanted to tell him later. She turned around to face him and Letty visibly flinched, "what the hell happened to you?" she asked, repeating Leons earlier words. Gabriella looked at Mia helplessly, Mia took this as a signal and rose from the table, "I'll explain what happened Letty, come with me into the front room", she said and walked out with Letty following close behind.

Dom took the seat that Mia had vacated and looked intently at Gabriella, she looked back at him until she eventually gave in, "I wasn't going to definitely leave, I was just thinking about it. I put all of you in danger. Vince could have been badly injured last night, what would have happened if Mia had stayed at home? She would have been in a bad way just like me. I care about you guys. I couldn't live with myself if something happened to you all." She finished quietly. Dom sighed, but before he could say anything Leon cut in, "It doesn't matter, none of it does. You are our Family. We can look after ourselves and you. We will look after each other but you don't have to leave. We kinda got used to having you around." He said. Gabriella looked at Leon and back to Dom who nodded in agreement, "He's right for once, don't leave you'll be fine here, now everyone knows what is happening we can all be on the look out for trouble." He said.

Gabriella nodded slowly, "I said I was only thinking about it, I will stay but only for as long as everyone stays safe." She replied.

"That's all I ask for" Dom said.

"Okay, so now that Gabriella is staying, what are we doing today?" Jesse asked, closing the subject.

Dom chuckled, "umm, nothing much, it's Sunday so we can just chill I guess" he replied.

Later that day the team were doing just as Dom suggested. Dom, Leon and Letty were watching a movie on the TV. It was about 3 in the afternoon and none of them had done anything significant all day. Jesse was at the kitchen table with his laptop working on some adjustments for his car, and the sound of Vince's bass guitar reverberated around the house.

As Mia was in her third year medical school she had a lot of work to do and was therefore in her room writing a thousand word essay.

Gabriella was in her room, lying on the bed. She could hear Vince in the room next to hers, strumming away on his guitar. She hadn't said much to him today but if she had it would probably have been awkward to say the least. She knew that her relationship with him had probably become less hostile but she didn't think they were exactly friends yet so she figured she would just go with the flow.

Her entire body was aching, including her head, it felt like something between having a particularly bad bout of flu and falling down three flights of stairs. That was why she was in her room, she was trying to stay as still as possible until the pain killers kicked in. She let her mind wander and eventually drifted into a light sleep.

Gabriella tossed and turned in her sleep, getting more and more agitated as she had a very vivid nightmare.

It was like a loop of events being repeated over and over again. She could hear her father yelling at her,

"_You disrespected me! You left us! Now you will pay!"_

"_You are an ungrateful little bitch!"_

"_You good for nothing slut, How dare you lave us!" _

She could feel the force of the punches and kicks repeatedly but this time Vince didn't come to her rescue and it was never ending. She began to whimper and would have gone even deeper into the dream if a knock at the door hadn't awoken her.

She woke up suddenly, looked around the room and realised she had fallen asleep, she stumbled over to the door and opened it to find Vince on the other side of the door, "You okay, you look kind of bleary," he said

"Oh yeah, I'm okay I was sleeping, did you need something?" she asked him

"Yeah, Dom just called down he says dinner is ready"

"already? What time is it?"

"it's 6 o'clock"

"wow, I've been asleep for 3 hours" she said as she moved into the hall way and walked with Vince to the stairway, "it must be all the pain killers" she muttered.

"how're you feelin' by the way?" Vince asked

"Oh, I've been better but I'm doing alright, thanks" she replied.

By now they were reaching the table where everyone was sitting.

"well I'm glad you feel better" he said before they all proceeded to eat the meal.

A**/N so there you go finally. I have finished the chapter. I'm not completely happy with it but it's sending the story in the right direction.**

**Anyway thank you, if you are still reading this, for your patience. **


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